ROMANCE WITHOUT FICTION : 



SKETCHES FROM THE PORTFOLIO 
OF AN OLD MISSIONARY. / 



BY HENKY BLEBY, 

CHAIRMAN AND GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF THE WESLEYAN MISSION 
IN THE BAHAMAS. 



; Truth needs no flowers of speech." POPE. 



LONDON : 

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR AT 

THE WESLEYAN CONFERENCE OFFICE, 

2, CASTLE STREET, CITY ROAD ; 
AND AT THE \VESLEYAX MISSION HOUSE, BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHIN. 

1872. 




LONDON : 

PRINTED BY WILLIAM NICHOLS, 
40, HOXTON SQUARE. 



PREFACE. 



THE writer of these pages, during forty years of mis 
sionary service, has been mixed up with a good deal of 
thrilling incident. He was early enough in the mission 
field to be an eye-witness of the fierce dying struggles of 
British colonial slavery, and take part in the stirring events 
that preceded and followed the overthrow of the unhallowed 
system, that made merchandise and chattels of human being?. 
And he was personally acquainted with many of the indi 
viduals who figure in these narratives both for good and 
evil. 

These sketches have been written at different times since 
1853 ; some of them in Barbadoes, others in Paris, some 
upon the sea, arid several in the Bahamas. They are not 
tales of fiction. All the persons mentioned in them were 
real actors on the stage of life ; and all the events described 
were veritable occurrences. Should any hearts be moved 
to pity by reading these stories, it will not be pity wasted 
upon mere imaginary suffering. If tears of sympathy are 
called forth, they will not be shed over fanciful distress 
and ideal woe. 

The narrative element possesses a subtle fascinating 
power, that accounts for the supremacy of the novel and 
the story above every other form of literary art. The 
omnivorous appetite that prevails in the nursery for such 
stories as "Jack the Giant Killer," "Little Eed Eiding- 
Hood," and "Cinderella," is a silent acknowledgment of 



PREFACE. 



this power. Jack s insatiable love of yarns upon the fore 
castle is homage rendered to it. And the preference of Sun 
day scholars for story volumes, above all others that load 
the shelves of the library, is a tacit assertion of the enchant 
ing influence. The story is at the bottom of the epic and 
the drama ; and the most pleasing essays and disquisitions 
are those which embody brief stories for enlivenment and 
illustration. Even in the sacred volume the narrative ele 
ment abounds ; recognising the fact, that the taste for it has 
its basis in the depths of human nature. 

It is hoped that this volume of truthful narrative will 
not only afford amusement and gratification to its readers, 
but serve also to deepen in many hearts an interest in the 
great work of Christian missions, by which the kingdoms 
of this world are to be subdued and won for the Prince of 
Peace. 



CONTENTS. 



SKETCH 

I. PRAYER ANSWERED 

II. THE FAMINE OF THE WORD 

III. THE MARTYR MISSIONARY 51 

IV. SUFFERING FOR THE TRUTH 77 

V. JUDGMENT HILL 106 

VI. THE ASSASSIN 114 

VII. THE HELL-FIRE CLUB 126 

viii. THE BLACKSMITH S WEDDING 188 

IX. IN SLAVERY A HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS 152 

X. THE RENDEZVOUS OF THE BUCCANEERS 163 

XI. THE PANIC OF THE PLANTERS 178 

XII. THE LOST MISSIONARY 199 

XIII. YELLOW FEVER VICTIMS 206 

XIV. THE BAFFLED EXTORTIONER 217 

xv. THE MIDSHIPMEN S FROLIC 257 

XVI. BENJIE AND JUNO , 270 

XVII. THE QUADROON SLAVE 275 

XVIII. DRIVING AWAY THE ROOKS 302 

XIX. FATHER AND SON 339 

XX. THE KIDNAPPED NOBLE 343 

XXI. PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE UNDER DIFFICULTIES 364 

XXII. BLIGHTED LIVES 372 

XXIII. HAPPY DEATHS 390 



vi CONTEXTS. 

SKETCH PAGE 

XXIV. CROSSING THE ATLANTIC 405 

4-97 

XXV. A CHILD OF SORROW * 

XXVI. THE FUNERAL SERMON 437 

xxvn. A MOTHER S DREAM 445 

XXVIII. THE OLD SANCTUARY 453 

XXIX. THE CURSE CAUSELESS 482 

XXX. THE WEDDING 49. 

XXXI. THE BROKEN PROMISE 497 

XXXII. THE MURDERED CHILD 502 

XXXIII. OUR HOME UPON THE DEEP 516 

XXXIV. THE BROKEN HEART 527 



ROMANCE 

OF 

THE MISSION FIELD. 



I. 

PRAYER ANSWERED. 

MORE things are wrought by prayer 
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice 
Rise like a fountain for me night and day. 
For what are men better than sheep or goats, 
That nourish a blind life within the brain, 
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer, 
Both for themselves and those who call them friend ? 
For so the whole round earth is every way 
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. 

TENNYSON. 

" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform." 

wrote Cowper, in that beautiful hymn, in which the 
inscrutable wisdom of Jehovah, working out the 
loving designs of His Providence, is described in strain? 
that have carried with them abundant consolation and hope 
to many a desponding spirit. 

The sentiment embodied in these words must have 
presented itself in great power and beauty to the eleven 
chosen "Apostles of the Lamb," as they contemplated the 
manner in which the Divine Head of the Church filled up 
the vacancy among them that had been created by the apo 
stasy of " the son of perdition." Setting aside the mistaken 

B 



2 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION TIELD. 

arrangements of mere human wisdom by a method of His 
own, transcending all human anticipation, and in the exer 
cise of His own sole prerogative, he provided a successor to 
Judas in the apostolate ; going into the camp of the enemy, 
seizing upon the very head and chief of the persecutors, 
and transforming that embodiment of bitter, fierce, perse 
cuting zeal into a bright flame of light and love, and 
changing the relentless, unscrupulous opposer into a faithful 
and dauntless friend. It was a development of His wonder 
working Providence, fraught with richest instruction and 
encouragement to them in their great work. And it was 
calculated to open up to them enlarged views of Christ s 
mediatorial government and illimitable perfections, and 
abundantly to strengthen their faith in Him. It afforded 
a lofty and impressive illustration of the truth, that " His 
ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts ; "and, 
"as the heavers are high above the earth, so are His ways 
higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts." 
So it is in many of the great events which stand out 
prominently in man s history. Divine Wisdom selects and 
brings out the instruments suited to the accomplishment 
of its own beneficent purposes in a way that baffles and 
transcends all human sagacity and forethought. When the 
world, lay slumbering in the lap of a corrupt apostate 
church, enervated and enfeebled and blinded by the spells 
she had succeeded in casting over the nations, and the man 
was wanted who should rise up in the energy of a renewed 
and sanctified nature to break the charm of her enchant 
ments, and thunder in the ears of all Europe words of faith 
and power destined to shake the world, and initiate a new 
era of light and of religion, Jehovah knew where to lay 
His hand upon the agent He required. The all-seeing eye 
of Him. who is on the throne beheld him in the secluded 
recesses of a German monastery. And Martin Luther, the 
obscure son of a village woodcutter, was called forth from 
the cell to which, in Popish ignorance and godly simplicity 
and sincerity, he had devoted the remainder of his life, to 
be a witness for God, and produce that Eei ormation which 



PRATES ANSWERED. 3 

nas led to such auspicious results, and shed showers 
of blessing upon the nations of the world. Not amongst 
the wealthy and the great, but amongst the lowly and the 
poor, did Divine Providence look for and choose the instru 
ment by whom the counsels of infinite benignity were to 
be fulfilled, for the benefit of the world. 

So, when dense clouds had settled upon the British nation, 
and religion, degenerating into mere empty form, had well 
nigh died out in the land, and a slumbering church was to be 
aroused, heavenly light diffused through the land, and a 
revival of pure and undefiled religion to be wrought 
which should spread untold blessings over all the world, and 
subvert and overthrow all the false religions that debase 
and destroy man upon the face of the earth, the Divine 
Head of the Church selected and brought forth His chosen 
agent. He disciplined and prepared a despised Oxford 
student, and investing him with the wisdom, and the 
courage, and the piety, fitting him for the great work, 
sent out John Wesley to be a herald of mercy to the 
world, and give an impulse to His great work of restoring 
man, such as it had never before received since the apostolic 
age. Truly is it said, " Great things doeth He, which we 
cannot comprehend." (Job xxxvii. 5.) 

The powerful government of the British monarch extends 
over many of the beautiful isles of the Caribbean Sea, which 
in the progress of wars waged by Britain, not always with wise 
discretion, against the Continental powers, have fallen under 
the British crown. But at the period of our narrative all these 
fruitful lands where summer, unchequered by any of the cold 
blasts of winter, reigns with perennial glory, and clothes them 
with unchanging verdure, fruitfulness, and beauty, are cursed 
with the presence of slavery. Man holds property in man. 
Hundreds of thousands of the swarthy children of Africa, 
carried off by inhuman violence and wrong from their 
native land and borne to foreign shores under the protection 
of the British flag, are crushed down by oppression, lacerated 
by the whip, and wasted by unrequited toil, to enrich and 

B 2 



4 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

pamper those who make merchandise of the souls and 
bodies of fellow-creatures, heirs of immortality and 
redemption equally with themselves. There, too, darkness 
reigns. The wretchedness of the slave s lot is unrelieved 
by the consolations of religion. No light from heaven is 
suffered to fall across his path. Tor the soul must be kept 
in darkness, and all the nobler faculties of his nobler nature 
must be cramped and crushed down, that the fetters may 
remain quietly upon his limbs, and avarice plunder him at 
discretion. 

There are men there, it is true, who call themselves clergy 
men. But they are slaveholders themselves, and recognise no 
right beyond that possessed by cattle, in human beings guilty 
of a dark complexion. There are also two or three Moravian 
Missionaries, who, in self-denying love for souls for whom 
Christ died, have found their way to these sunlit shores, and, as 
far as they are suffered, shed a few rays of light upon such 
minds as they can gain access to. But, subject to all kinds 
of humiliating restrictions through the jealousy of the slave 
holders, on the few plantations where they are barely tolerated 
by command of absentee proprietors, it is but little they can 
do to help those around them. So that few, feeble, and far 
between are the rays of light that fall athwart the mass of 
darkness overspreading the thousands of human sufferers 
who are wasted, one generation after another, upon those 
blood-stained sugar plantations. 

But the oppressed are not forgotten of God. The Lover 
of souls has thoughts of mercy concerning them, and it is 
in the purposes of His loving-kindness to bring to them, in 
their darkness and despairing misery, that heavenly light 
which is spreading over the mother-land. In His loving 
providence He is about to open up to them the bright hopes 
and consolations of the Gospel, to cheer them in their 
oppressions, and enable them to sustain the multiplied wrongs 
which are heaped upon them ; that blessed Gospel which 
in its far-reaching influence shall in due time melt the 
chains which bind them, unloose the fetters, and make the 
oppressed go free. As in the case of the apostle chosen by 



PRATER ANSWERED. 

Him to fill the place of the fallen Judas, He who rules the 
affairs of this world chooses the instrument to initiate this 
work of true benevolence from amongst those whom human 
wisdom would never have thought of in such a connexion. 
He goes amongst the slaveholders themselves. Laying 
His hand upon one of the chief men among them, He 
selects him as the instrument to commence a Missionary 
work in those Western Isles of the sea, by which a 
large harvest of precious souls is to be gathered into the 
heavenly garner ; and which is destined to number amongst 
its triumphs the utter overthrow of the slaveholding system 
itself in all the dominions of the British monarch, and 
prepare the way for its abolition amongst the other nations 
of the earth. 

Near the centre of the pleasant little island of Antigua, 
which, like most of its sister isles, abounds with natural 
beauties and smiling landscapes, on a sugar plantation 
delightfully situated, resides a Mr. Gilbert. He occupies 
a large, well-furnished mansion, abounding in all the luxurious 
comforts with which wealthy West India planters generally 
surround themselves ; a class of men to whom the words of 
heavenly wisdom apply with much truth, "men of the 
world who have their portion in this life," and who deny 
themst lves no earthly indulgence that is within their reach. 
Mr. Gilbert is one of the principal men of the island, wealthy 
and well-educated ; and, as Speaker of the House of Assembly, 
holds one of the highest official situations in the land. An 
extensive proprietor of the soil, and the owner of slaves on a 
large scaled-several hundreds looking to him as their pro 
prietor, he is regarded as one of the most influential persons 
in the colony. He bears, however, the reputation of 
being a kind and indulgent master, under whom slavery is 
stripped of many of its revolting features. None of his 
slaves are either flogged into a bloody grave, or ground out 
of life by reckless and incessant toil beyond human strength 
to endure. Broken down in health by one of those diseases 
which prevail within the tropics, when all means of restora 
tion have failed nearer home, this gentleman is advised 



6 EOMANCE Or THE MISSION FIEL]>. 

by his medical attendants to try the effects of a voyage 
to England, often the best remedy in such intertropical 
ailments. 

Navigation has not yet arrived at that advanced degree of 
perfection which it is destined to reach in after years. A 
voyage to Europe from the "West Indies is a matter of time, 
and is not without considerable risk. But when life and health 
are at stake, men will make sacrifices, and expose themselves 
to hazards they would not otherwise encounter. Mr. Gilbert 
resolves to act upon the advice of his physicians ; and in one 
of the well loaded and comfortably fitted ships which bear 
his own produce to the European market, bids adieu to his 
native isle, uncertain, in the shattered state of his health, 
whether he shall ever look upon those lovely shores again. 
It pleases the wise Disposer of events to restore him ; the 
long sea voyage, and a short residence in England, accom 
plish the purpose for which he has left his home. 

For thirty or forty years John Wesley has been passing 
through thecountry, a flame of light and love, carrying blessing 
and peace and salvation to thousands of wretched homes. 
The fruits of his God-honoured labours are covering the land, 
and his name is everywhere known to be venerated by mul 
titudes, who owe all their most precious hopes to his loving 
toil ; having by his preaching been led to the Saviour of 
sinners. Mr. Gilbert hears of this wonderful man, who is 
making such a noise in the nation ; praised by some, 
denounced as a troubler and a fanatic by others. Perhaps 
it may be that sickness and a near approach to the confines 
of the unseen world have not been without some effect upon 
his mind ; or that God s loving-kindness in restoring his 
shattered health may have exerted a softening influence, and 
predisposed his heart to listen favourably to the message of 
Divine mercy. Certain it is, however, that the life-giving 
word lays hold upon his conscience. As he listens to that 
servant of the Lord, who has been the herald of salvation to 
multitudes, a vivid impression of eternal things comes upon 
his mind. Thoughts of God and of religion are awakened, 
to which he has all his life been a strargcr. The past and 



PRATER ANSWEBED. 7 

the future are presented in a light altogether new to him ; 
and the proud man of the world the self-indulgent slave 
holder is found humbled at the foot of the cross, earnestly 
praying, " God be merciful to me a sinner. * Burdened and 
heavy laden with a sense of sin, he soon forms an acquaintance 
with the God-honoured man whose powerful ministry has 
been the means of awakening him to a sense of his guilt and 
danger as a sinner, and ere long he is enabled to rejoice in the 
blessings of salvation, passed from death unto life, and made 
a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 

Mr. Gilbert resided for some time in England, during 
which he had the privilege of frequent intercourse with the 
founder of Methodism, who preached in his house at Wands- 
worth, and baptized two of the Negro slaves he had taken 
with him to the mother country, who, like their owner, had 
heard the Gospel to salvation ; and he returned to Antigua 
about 1759. Thus to John Wesley himself is to be ascribed 
the honour of laying the foundation of the prosperous 
Methodist Churches in the West Indies. Not only was Mr. 
Gilbert brought to God through his instrumentality, the 
first amongst the slave-owners, but the two slaves of that 
gentleman, received into the church by baptism adminis 
tered by the Founder of Methodism, were the first-fruits and 
the earnest of a large harvest of souls to be gathered into 
the garner of the Lord from amongst the enslaved children 
of Africa, by that ministry of Methodism which Mr. Wesley 
originated. 

The West Indian planter is a greatly changed man when 
his foot again presses the soil of Antigua. He has not only 
gained the physical health he went to seek in Europe ; he 
has found the pearl of great price. Once a child of wrath 
even as others, having his portion in this life, and caring for 
nothing beyond it, he is now a new creature, translated out 
of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God s dear 
Son; a warm-hearted, devoted member of the Methodist 
body. 

Settled again on his own plantation, he no longer looks 
around him with the heedlessness and indifference of former 



8 BOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

times. Once, in common with the men of his class, he 
identified the Negroes who cultivated his lands with the 
monkey tribes, as mere goods and chattels ; or as being at 
best such a degenerate variety of the human species as to 
defy all cultivation of mind or correction of morals. But 
old things have passed away, and all things have become 
new. Those dense clouds of prejudice with which sin and 
selfishness had burdened his mind, have been dispelled by 
the bright Sun of Righteousness shining upon his soul ; and 
now he regards the sable children of toil around him as men 
and brethren, men equally with himself heirs of immortality, 
and equally with himself interested in a Heavenly Father s 
love, and entitled to the blessings of redemption. The love 
of God that has been shed abroad in his heart is not mere 
sentimentality. It is the loving active principle that pro 
duces a yearning charity to his fellow-men. It is like a fire 
in his bones, that will give him no rest until he makes 
known to the thousands of souls perishing all around him in 
darkness and sin, and to persons of all shades of colour, that 
glorious Gospel which has been to himself the power of God 
to salvation. 

It soon begins to be whispered that there are " strange 
doings at Gilbert s." The plantation is known by the family 
name. It is observed that the mill is not in motion, and 
there is no smoke from the boiling-house on Sunday, as there 
used to be. On that day there is no work of any kind done 
on the plantation. Worse than this, Mr. Gilbert is reported 
to have " gone mad, for he is trying to teach religion to the 
Negroes ; and he might just as well try to turn his mules 
and oxen into men, as to make Christians out of Negro 
slaves." 

The fact is that the master of Gilbert s, constrained by 
the love of Christ, has begun to do something for the salva 
tion of the souls living and dying all around him in igno 
rance and in sin. He first of all gathers his household for 
domestic worship ; and many of the slaves of the estate, as 
they can get an opportunity, crowd in on these occasions, 
and manifest an earnest desire to know something of this 



PBAYEK ANSWERED. 9 

"new religion," as they call it, of which they have never 
heard anything before. The two converted slaves baptized 
by Mr. Wesley tell their fellow slaves of what God has done 
for them, and the happiness of which they have been made 
partakers ; and in many hearts there is awakened an intense 
yearning for instruction concerning the things of God. 
This desire, freely expressed by many of these poor ignorant 
Negroes, he regards as a providential call pointing out to 
him the path of Christian duty. Regardless of what may 
be said or thought by those around him, he boldly takes up 
the cross ; and Sabbath after Sabbath speaks to the assem 
bled Negroes of his own plantation concerning their souls, the 
great work of redemption, and the things belonging to their 
peace. And the work grows. The slaves from other estates 
venture tremblingly to Gilbert s when they can make an 
opportunity, not quite sure that they will not be driven 
away or punished ; but they become more bold and confident 
when they find that their presence gives no offence, but is 
rather welcomed, both by Mr. Gilbert and his people. 
Then some of the white people go to see this strange sight, 
one of the leading men of the island become " a Negro 
parson." After a while the Sabbath services at Gilbert s 
become an acknowledged institution throughout the district 
in which the plantation is situated, and multitudes resort 
thither to join in Christian worship, and receive instruction 
in the way of life. 

Probably had some person of inferior note attempted such 
an innovation upon the established state of things in the 
island, he would have been indignantly driven from the land 
by the ungodly and deeply-prejudiced slave-holders. But 
God has wisely chosen the right instrument for commencing 
a work pregnant with such grand results. He has laid His 
hand upon the proper man. The religion-haters of the 
colony may scowl, and grumble, and mutter vain protesta 
tions. Many of them do so. But Mr. Gilbert is beyond 
their control. He occupies a position in society which sets 
their opposition at nought. Consequently no active mea 
sures are taken to interfere with the Sabbath services at 



10 ROMAN CD OF THE 

Gilbert s. In this is seen and recognised the 
Providence of God. 

The work goes prosperously on. First one and then 
another presents himself, groaning under the burden of a 
guilty conscience, and anxious to know what they must do 
to be saved. They are directed to " the Lamb of God, that 
taketh away the sin of the world," and obtain peace with 
God, and rejoice in the blessings of salvation. After the 
lapse of a few years there are found upwards of two hundred 
souls, chiefly Negro slaves, rejoicing in a new life, and in the 
spiritual liberty wherewith Christ has made them free. 
They have all been gathered into classes, after the model of 
English Methodism ; and many a Negro hut resounds with 
the voice of prayer and praise, where, for generation?, there 
had been the unbroken stillness of spiritual death. 

Dark and mysterious are the ways of God ! Mr. Gilbert 
has prosecuted his unostentatious career of usefulness until 
he has lived down all the reproach that was cast upon him. 
And the little society of which he is the overseer has become 
firmly established, when his health again gives way. Many 
tears and many prayers are called forth when his sickness 
becomes known. But after a short illness he passes away 
in Christian triumph to the realms of the blest, and the 
little flock of converted souls, who have been brought to 
Christ through his labours, are left without a shepherd. 
His loss is greatly mourned, for there is none left to take his 
place, and preach, as he had done, Sabbath after Sabbath, the 
word of life to the poor enslaved children of Africa, who had 
too much cause to say, before he became their instructor in 
the things of God, "No man cared for my soul." Gil 
bert s, deprived of its master, has become spiritually a deso 
lation. There is no longer seen on the Sabbath forenoon a 
multitude, clad in their best and cleanest apparel, going up 
with joy to the house of prayer. The voice of the beloved 
preacher who had proclaimed to the multitude the glad 
tidings of great joy, is silent in the dust ; and gloom and 
sorrow are in many habitations. 

In the absence of every thing like pastoral care and over- 



PRATER ANSWERED. 11 

sight, it is not surprising that during the lapse of several 
years some of the members fall away, and classes which had 
been formed are broken up. But there are two faithful 
Negro women who strive and labour earnestly to keep 
together the scattering flock. Amongst those things which 
their faithful instructor has often delighted to dwell upon,, 
both in his public and private ministrations, was the power 
of prayer ; and he continually urged them, as a duty and a 
privilege, " in everything by prayer and supplication with 
thanksgiving to make known their requests unto God." 
These two earnest class-leaders have not forgotten this. 
They call to mind the examples he had brought from the 
Scriptures to show how God hears and ultimately answers 
the prayer of faith. They remember what he told them of 
Abraham, and Elijah, and Daniel, and others who pleaded 
successfully with God ; and they urge the people now, in 
this time of extremity, when God alone can help them, to 
call upon Him in prayer. They want a teacher to supply 
the place of Mr. Gilbert, f and show them the way of the 
Lord. They cannot conceive how it can be done, or where 
the man they want is to come from. But they know that 
nothing is too hard for the Lord. He is all-sufficient, and 
can do whatsoever He pleases ; " for has not Massa Gilbert 
told them so out of the book ? " 

" Let us tell God about it." " Let us pray to we Saviour, 
as Massa Gilbert tell us. He will find de way to help we," 
is the continual exhortation of these two faithful unlettered 
women. And it is not without effect. Although some who 
had been gathered in have fallen away, a goodly number are 
yet in earnest to " flee from the wrath to come," and save 
their souls. Animated by the zeal and faith of this devoted 
couple, they frequently assemble together for prayer. 
Often are they hindered by the almost incessant toil exacted 
from them on the estates to which they belong as slaves ; yet 
as many as can get together continue " instant in prayer." 
Night after night, whenever it is practicable, there is a 
little band, led on by these two faithful slaves, pouring out 
simple, earnest supplication before God, the burden of which 



12 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION EIELD. 

is that He will look in pity upon their destitution, and send 
them one like "Massa Gilbert," to break to them the bread 
of life, and help them on in the way to heaven. Years roll 
on, and the answer comes not. But still they pray and do 
not faint. Greatly tempted to yield to discouragement, 
they call to mind what the man of God has often told 
them, " that the Lord sometimes tries the faith and patience 
of His people by keeping back for a while the promised 
blessing which He is sure to bestow in the end." Like the 
woman of Canaan, they cry more earnestly, " Lord, help us," 
looking out as eagerly as did the prophet on Carmel for 
the sign that their prayer has prevailed. 

It does prevail. The All- merciful One cannot turn a deaf 
ear to importunity like this. It is in the designs of His 
Providence to carry on a mighty work of grace and salva 
tion from this small beginning in Antigua. He tries the 
faith of these simple-hearted supplicants for a long season ; 
then He sends them the help they pray for. And He 
sends it in a way that no human wisdom could have 
anticipated. 

About this time a want is felt in the dockyard at 
English Harbour. A master shipwright is required to 
superintend the workmen employed upon the ships of war 
that are brought thither for repairs. The skilled workman 
that is needed is not to be found in Antigua. In these times 
of war, operations are carried on upon a large scale in the 
docks at English Harbour, and it is a situation of con 
siderable responsibility that has to be filled. The sceptic 
would probably curl his lip in scorn at the thought ; but it 
is the pleading importunity of these poor praying slave 
people at Gilbert s that influences and decides the filling up 
of this vacant situation at English Harbour. Men often 
unconsciously fulfil the Divine purposes when acting only 
with a regard to their own convenience. So it is in the 
present case. There is in the government service at Chat 
ham a subordinate but clever mechanic, who through 
Methodist agency has been won from the world to Christ. 
Being a man of considerable intelligence, and possessing 



PEAYER ANSWEEED. 13 

talents for usefulness in the Church, he has been appointed 
to fill the offices of class-leader and exhorter. Here is the 
chosen successor to the saintly Gilbert, the man to take 
up his mantle and enter into the evangelical labours from 
which he has been taken away. To him is directed the 
choice of those whose province it is to fill up the vacant 
post at English Harbour. They select him for the post 
because he is an accomplished workman, and a man of sober 
and upright character. But God has overruled the selec 
tion in His own unerring wisdom ; and all unconscious 
of the sphere of Christian usefulness that is awaiting him 
in Antigua, John Baxter accepts the situation, and crosses 
the Atlantic, in direct opposition to the wishes of hi& 
friends, to undertake the duties that have been assigned to 
him there. 

Mr. Baxter is a devoted man of God, who for twelve 
years has borne the reproach of Methodism. He is well 
fitted, both by nature and grace, for the work that lies before 
him in the service of his Divine Master. It soon becomes 
manifest to him that, in accepting the Government appoint 
ment that was offered to him, he has been guided by a 
wisdom higher than his own. He has not been many hours 
upon the strange shores before he is informed of the work 
begun by Mr. Gilbert, and interrupted by his death. He 
soon finds out the praying remnant of the scattered society ; 
and when he begins to speak with them of the things of 
God, they at once recognise in him the man whom God has 
brought to them, in answer to the many prayers they have 
sent up to Him, that He would give them a teacher to help 
them in finding the way to heaven. 

Two days after his arrival, Mr. Baxter begins to address 
the people. It is Saturday night, and only a few of the 
faithful members are present, who for years have been long 
ing to hear again the voice of a faithful preacher of the 
word of life. How are their spirits gladdened ! How 
greatly is their faith in God confirmed, as they listen once 
more to the joyful sound, and look upon the manly form of 
him whom God has brought to their help! They have 



14 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

asked God to send them a teacher of His truth ; and there 
he is before them, in their eyes the embodiment of the 
promise Mailed, "Ask, and ye shall receive ! " 

The news spreads rapidly, " A preacher has come." On 
the next day, being the Sabbath, some hundreds flock to 
hear the messenger of truth. So it is during the following 
week : whenever he preaches, he finds a multitude athirst for 
the word. He accepts the sign. God has brought him 
here, in His wonder-working providence, "to preach the 
Gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison 
doors to them that are bound." He gives himself heartily 
to the work, rejoicing over many souls awakened and 
made wise unto salvation through his labours. He does 
not abandon or neglect the duties of the secular office he 
was sent out to fulfil. On the contrary, he commands the 
respect and confidence of all with whom he is connected by 
uncompromising diligence and fidelity. But on the Sabbath, 
and very frequently on week evenings, he preaches to anxious 
multitudes the Gospel of salvation. 

He does not labour in vain. His heart is cheered by 
glorious success. Many a dark mind is illuminated ; many 
a sin-hardened heart melted down into true penitence 
under the power of the word. Week after week his soul is 
cheered by seeing sinners converted from the error of their 
way. The classes which had been scattered, are gathered 
again. Other classes are formed ; and the planters are as 
much astonished as the Jews were when God through 
Peter granted unto the Gentiles repentance unto life, at 
seeing religion powerfully spreading, and producing all its 
gracious fruit amongst the Negro slaves. They have been 
accustomed to look upon these unfortunate children of 
oppression as no more capable of religious instruction than 
their cattle and their mules. 

Success itself becomes in time a source of embarrassment. 
Soon after Mr. Baxter s arrival he had written to Mr. Wesley, 
" The old standers desire that I would inform you that you 
have many children in Antigua whom you never saw." A 



PEATER ANSWERED. It 

year later he writes : " Six hundred of them (the Negroes) 
have joined the Society ; and if using the means of grace be 
any proof, we may conclude they are in earnest. Some of 
them come three or four miles after the labours of the day, 
that they may be present at eight o clock to hear the word ; 
and on Sundays many come nine or ten miles barefooted to 
meet their classes." Mr. Baxter is in labours abundant. 
Every evening, after the duties of the day are over, this 
devoted servant of Christ rides to one of the plantations, 
where the required permission has been granted, to meefe 
with and preach to the people there, and then returns home 
to be ready for the secular duties of the morrow. The entire 
Sabbath is devoted to ministerial work. It is very desirable 
that a preacher be sent from home to take charge of the 
growing church ; that, however, is impracticable, or the zeal 
of John Wesley would have led him favourably to respond 
to the appeals addressed to him on this subject. 

But the work is the Lord s, and He fails not to provide 
for it. When Mr. Baxter is well-nigh overwhelmed with 
the care of this expanding cause, another member of the 
Gilbert family, or one bearing the same name, is sent to his 
aid. A Mrs. Gilbert has claims upon a plantation in 
Antigua ; and failing to receive her annuity regularly, she is 
compelled to visit the West Indies. She has been a member 
of the Methodist Society in England, when it was a sect 
everywhere spoken against, and when it required both reso 
lution and fortitude to be identified with it. On her arrival 
in Antigua, she sees and acknowledges the hand of the Lord 
in bringing her to this far-off land, that she may render 
much-needed aid to a faithful servant of his Master, who, 
like Issachar, " is crouching down under two burdens," either 
of which is quite sufficient for any man to bear. This 
Christian lady enters cheerfully and energetically into the 
work, recognising the leadings of the cloud that has con 
ducted her to the sunny land. "Had the estate," she 
observed, " regularly paid my annuity, I should have rested 
in my native clime, and quietly enjoyed those means of grace 
which I so highly prize ; but God hath His way in the 



16 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

whirlwind. I did not know that He had any thing for me 
to do in His vineyard, nor could I suppose that He would 
use so mean an instrument. Bat my work was provided. 
Immediately on my arrival I was called on to supply those 
deficiencies which the secular affairs of Mr. Baxter rendered 
unavoidable." 

The help thus providentially sent to Mr. Baxter affords 
temporary relief, but soon greatly increases the trouble 
and difficulty. This Christian lady opens her house to all 
that will attend at family prayer every day, and once in 
every week for the reading of the Scriptures. Both whites 
and blacks attend in considerable numbers, and a new im 
pulse is given to the soul-saving work. The societies 
largely increase ; and the pressure of duty and responsibility 
becomes heavier than it has ever been before. One urgent 
application after another is sent to Mr. Wesley. But, though 
earnestly desirous of sending the much required help, he is 
unable to do so. God, however, is mindful of the work that 
is turning many to righteousness, and again answers prayer 
in sending help to those faithful labourers. Driven by stress 
of weather to the shores of Antigua, a ship drops her anchor 
in the harbour, that has on board a Methodist family bound 
to the plantations in Virginia. They have been unscru 
pulously imposed upon, and shamefully treated, by the 
captain ; so that when the vessel, after thirteen weeks con 
tention with the elements, is compelled to put into Antigua, 
where the sufferings they have endured are made known, 
they are advised by kind and sympathizing friends whom 
they meet amongst the Methodists to leave her. The same 
friends also raise a subscription to pay for their passage, and 
set them free from the power of the tyrant into whose hands 
they have unhappily fallen. The father of the family is an 
old man, who has been for some years a devoted member of 
the Methodist Society at Waterford in Ireland. His two 
sons, both of them grown up men, soon find employment 
suited to their condition and capacities, one at the dockyard, 
and the other on a plantation. The old man displays gifts 
and piety that render him a valuable helper to Mr. Baxter 



PRATER ANSWERED. 17 

and Mrs. Gilbert : and, thus strengthened, the work spreads 
and grows more and more. 

Eight years have elapsed since Mr. Baxter entered into 
the labours of the lamented Gilbert. They have been years 
of toil and anxiety, and yet of joy and triumph. E?ery year 
has witnessed considerable accessions to the number of those 
who have experienced the saving power of Divine grace. A 
chapel has been erected in the principal town of the island, 
in which a large number of all classes in the community 
assemble every Sabbath to worship God and hear the truth 
as it is in Jesus. The societies, that numbered about two 
hundred when Mr. Gilbert was so mysteriously taken from 
their head, have now increased to over two thousand. " I 
find it hard to flesh and blood," says Mr. Baxter, in a letter 
to Mr. Wesley, " to work all day and then ride ten miles 
into the country at night to preach." The need for minis 
terial help has become almost overwhelming. Neither Mr. 
Baxter, who has taken to himself a wife that is a true help 
meet, nor Mrs. Gilbert, who devotes all her time and energies 
to the cause, can hope to hold out long under this severe 
and continually increasing pressure. There seems to be 
no help in man. Even the large warm heart of John 
Wesley fails them ; for, in the multiplicity of his labours and 
the advancing infirmities of age, he can find no means of 
furnishing the aid he earnestly desires to afford to the little 
Methodist flock in the isles of the sea. 

But it is now remembered how prayer once before moved 
the Lord s hand to send help in the time of need. When 
the society was scattered after the death of Mr. Gilbert, the 
earnest intercessions of a faithful few prevailed with God, 
and He took a man from the dockyard at Chatham, and 
brought him to the bereaved flock, to become their 
pastor and instructor in Divine things. " The Lord s arm 
is not shortened, neither is His ear heavy." He can find 
the means of supplying their great want. All along Mr. 
Baxter and Mrs. Gilbert have been praying that some 
faithful labourers might be sent to assist them in the great 
work. But now the whole church is stirred up with them- 

c 



18 BOMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

selves to more special pleading with God on this behalf. 
Week after week meetings are held in the chapel and on the 
plantations for this purpose ; and God is earnestly entreated 
to send forth labourers into this field, where the harvest is 
already great. 

They do not pray in vain. As in the former instance, 
prayer is heard and answered, and in a way that wondrously 
displays the all-prevailing, all controlling providence of 
God ; showing how He who hears the prayers of the faithful 
has " His way in the whirlwind," " riding upon the heavens 
in their help, and in His excellency on the sky." 

It is in the autumn of 1786, when for several years 
earnest and united prayer has been going up to heaven 
from the widely scattered societies in Antigua, that 
God would send them ministers to meet the demands 
for instruction of the scattered and increasing congrega 
tions, that Dr. Coke embarks at Gravesend with a band of 
Missionaries, The three companions of the good Doctor 
are Messrs. Warren er, Hammett, and Clarke. They are 
bound to Nova Scotia ; where a Wasleyan Mission has been 
commenced, and a reinforcement of missionary labourers is 
required to meet the demands of the growing work. Ap 
pointed by the Conference to go to British North America, 
they have no thought about the West Indies and the 
praying people there ; nor have they the slightest expecta 
tion of ever visiting those sunny regions of the West. 
But "the steps of good men are ordered by the Lord ;" and 
He directs and overrules all human events for the accom 
plishment of His own wise purposes. There are prayers 
registered in heaven which are to influence their movements, 
and give their voyage a direction altogether unexpected. 

On the 24th of September the missionary band join the ship 
which is to be much longer than they anticipated their 
Ijome upon the deep ; and they commence their voyage 
under circumstances not the most auspicious. Their course 
down the Channel is both rough and dangGrous. A storm of 
unusual severity and duration assails the vessel, during which 
their safety is imperilled by collision with a sloop ; and they 



PTIA.YER ANSWERED. 19 

also narrowly escape the danger of being run down by a 
large frigate, driven by the fury of the tempest across 
their path. Battered and tossed about for many days at the 
mercy of the elements, it is not until the end of the third 
week that they are able to pass the Land s End, and fairly 
stretch out into the wide and angry Atlantic. 

But this is only the beginning of sorrows to the tempest- 
tossed voyagers. They encounter a succession of fierce 
gales day afcer day, causing the waters to rise and swell into 
waves of mountainous dimensions, and driving them far out 
of the course they want to pursue. After nine weeks of this 
rough kind of life a greater peril threatens them, for the 
ship is found to have sprung a dangerous leak ; and it is 
with difficulty the water can be kept under by the constant 
use of the pumps. Before effectual measures can be adopted 
to remedy this evil, a fierce whirling tempest, worse than 
anything they have encountered before, comes upon them, 
and the vessel is in imminent danger of foundering. Axes 
are in readiness to cut away the masts, and both crew and 
passengers feel that there is but a step between them and 
eternity. Great are the searchings of heart which these 
continuous perils cause in the missionary band. But they 
know in whom they have believed; and, raised above all 
anxious fear, they feel, with the Apostle, " For me to live is 
Christ, to die is gain." 

It is one of the aggravations of their condition that the 
commander of the vessel that is bearing them over the sea 
is, like too many more of his class, ignorant, surly, and brutal, 
and the slave of a vulgar superstition. Owing probably 
to a misunderstanding of Jonah s history, the super 
stitious notion is held by many whose business leads them 
to go down to the sea in ships, that the presence of a 
minister of religion on board brings bad luck to a ship s 
crew. The captain is one of these, and every disaster that 
occurs on the voyage is by him attributed to the influence of 
the missionaries on board the vessel. From the beginning 
he has looked with a strong feeling of dislike upon these 
men of God ; and every fresh trouble that occurs adds to the 

c 2 



20 BOMANCE Or THE MISSION FIELD. 

gloom and surliness of his disposition. The more they pray 
the worse becomes the weather, in the captain s opinion, 
and the greater the, danger to the ship. At length the brute 
in him becomes so thoroughly aroused that he is on the 
point of imitating the conduct of the mariners in the case of 
Jonah, by throwing Dr. Coke overboard, to propitiate the 
angry spirits of the deep. Though restrained from proceed 
ing to this extremity, he assails the Doctor with personal 
violence, administering sundry cuffs and kicks ; and in his 
frenzy seizing upon some of the books and papers that over 
spread the table in the Doctor s cabin, and hurling them 
into the sea. These surly humours and proceedings of the 
captain do not by any means add to the comfort of the 
missionary travellers ; but they endure them patiently, as 
they do the other evils and discomforts of a miserable 
voyage, rejoicing that they are not only called to believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ, but also to suffer for His sake. 

The captain s ebullitions of violent temper bring no 
improvement of the weather. For sixty-eight days, with 
scarcely any intermission, they have been driven about by 
the fury of the elements, often at their wits end, and seem 
ingly ready to perish. As yet there is no improvement. On 
the sixty-ninth day they are in the midst of a violent 
hurricane. The ship is thrown on her beam ends, and the 
passengers are crying out, " Pray for us, Doctor, for we are just 
gone." But the Lord interposes, as He has done many times 
before, when they seemed to be in the last extremity, and by the 
blowing away of the sails the ship is relieved from her immi 
nent danger ; and they drive before the terrible gale with bare 
spars, until its violence has in some degree expended itself. 
The provisions are now getting low, and the water supply is 
beginning to fail ; for it will soon be three months since they 
left the Thames. Nor is there the slightest prospect of a 
favourable change in the weather. 

In these circumstances the captain summons a sort of 
council from amongst the passengers to consider what is best 
to be done. The ship is in bad condition and very leaky, 
owing to her fierce and protracted conflict with the elements ; 



PRAYER AtfSTVEEED. 21 

and he expresses it as his opinion that it is hopeless to 
attempt to reach Halifax in the face of such stormy weather 
as they have encountered for so many weeks ; and even with 
fine weather the provisions would not hold out for the 
voyage. With one consent it is determined, as that which 
seems to be most practicable, to give up the attempt to 
reach Nova Scotia, and shape their course to the West 
Indies. The sails are altered accordingly ; they direct their 
course in a more southerly direction ; and a few days suffice 
to carry them out of the region of storms and tempests. A 
clear blue sky is now above them, arid the water is com 
paratively smooth. A favourable breeze bears them swiftly 
on their course. The cold chills of winter speedily change 
to a balmy summer temperature. A tropical bird hovers 
about the ship ; and after the lapse of eleven days, from the 
time they turned their vessel s prow towards the West Indies, 
they discover land. It proves to be the island of Antigua, 
and early in the morning of the 25th of December, to the 
great joy of all on board, they find themselves in the pleasant 
land-enclosed harbour of St. John. 

As soon as the anchor is dropped Dr. Coke and his 
companions go ashore, with the view of inquiring for Mr. 
Baxter ; of whose labours and successes in Antigua Dr. Coke 
is not entirely ignorant. In passing along the street from 
the landing place one of the first persons they fall in with 
is Mr. Baxter himself, on his way to the chapel to 
celebrate the public services of the Christmas festival. The 
joy of the meeting is great on both sides, though for widely 
different reasons. Dr Coke and his fellow-voyagers 
rejoice that they have been thus graciously delivered from 
the perils of the sea. With Mr. Baxter there is joy that 
God has answered prayer and sent the help so long desired. 
Upon the Doctor devolve the services of the day. Thrice to 
large and attentive audiences does he gladly hold forth the 
word of life, and declare the wonders of that love of God 
which spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for 
us all. 

But who shall describe the gladness of the people, or tell of 



22 BOMANCE OE THE MISSION FIELD. 

the confirmation given to their faith in God by this impressive 
and wonderful answer to their prayers ? For months for 
y ears they have been pleading with God in earnest suppli 
cation that, as He sent Mr. Baxter to their aid when they 
prayed so earnestly in that behalf, so now He would by some 
means, not difficult to heavenly Wisdom to discover, send 
them ministers to be their instructors and guides in the way 
of life. And lo ! the answer has come ! While they have 
been praying, God has heard them, and in His own wise and 
perfect way has been working for them, and giving such a 
direction to passing events as to fulfil the desire of their 
hearts. There they are ; the very men they have wanted ! 
the very men they have prayed for ! brought contrary to 
their own wishes, and in opposition to their most strenuous 
efforts, across the broad stormy ocean to Antigua ; faithful 
ministers of the Gospel of peace ! What a wonderful proof 
is this of the power of prayer, and what an encouragement in 
every thing to make known their wishes unto God ! Prayer 
has raised up the stormy wind, and lashed the ocean waves into 
fury, to drive these men of God far from their intended 
course, and bring them to a strange land, a land altogether 
far from their thoughts, there to find a people prepared of the 
Lord for their evangelical labours, and to gather, in an unex 
pected field, a precious harvest of immortal souls. 

Nor do the missionary band fail to consider the works of 
the Lord and regard the operation of His hands. When 
they look at the work of the Lprd that for twenty-six years 
has been going on in the colony, first through the labours of 
Mr. Gilbert, and then through the agency of Mr. Baxter ; 
when they observe the proportions to which it has grown, 
and learn how for several years the people have been be 
sieging the throne of grace with prayer that He would send 
them the help they cannot obtain from man ; they see 
clearly the hand of the Lord in all that has befallen them, 
In answer to the prayers of the earnest, simple people in 
Antigua, He has commissioned the fierce storm and tempest 
to assail them on their way, and thus render it impracticable 
for them to reach the country to which they were bound. 



PllAYER ANSWERED. 

While their lives have been precious in His sight, and He 
has preserved them in the manifold perils of their protracted 
voyage, He has driven them away from their intended 
course, and brought them, " by a way they knew not, and 
by a path they have not known," to the very island, and 
into the very port, where there is a people prepared of the 
Lord, and hungering for that bread of life which they can 
break unto them. Their own purposes and wishes have 
been overruled and baffled, and they have been guided 
through the darkness and the danger by a wisdom superior 
to their own. 

The idea of proceeding to Nova Scotia is at once aban 
doned by the missionaries. Here is a field open to them ; 
and it is surely the hand of the Lord that has guided their 
course hither. The cloud of Divine Providence has so mani 
festly led the way, that they at once resolve to accept and 
enter upon the work which lies before them. Apart from 
the white population, there are in the several islands that 
pertain to the British crown at least a million in whose 
veins flows the blood of Africa, from the fair Mestafina, only 
one-sixteenth black, or the olive Quadroon, to the jetty, fall- 
blooded Negroes, stolen by thousands from their own sun 
burnt shores to till the lands of the stranger. And for the 
souls of all these multitudes no man cares. Classed with 
the unintelligent brute, they are by their owners, and by 
those to whom their owners look as religious instructors, 
shut out, so far as man can do it, from the blessings of 
redemption, and left, without an effort to save them, to perish 
in their sins. Here is the work to which the Lord has 
called them. The results of Mr. Gilbert s and Mr. Baxter s 
labours have demonstrated, not only that the black man has 
a soul that is capable of being saved equally with that of the 
man of fairer hue, but that he is also capable of exhibiting 
in his life and conversation all the heavenly dispositions, and 
all the exalted graces and beauties, of Christian holiness. 
Here, therefore, it is resolved that they shall stay, and toil 
in the field which God has opened to them ready for a 
glorious harvest. 



BOHA.NCE OF THE MISSION PIELD. 

By this opportune arrival of the missionaries, not only 
is Antigua supplied with the pastoral help it needed so 
much, but provision is made for the extension of the work to 
other parts of the West Indies. St. Vincent, Dominica, St. 
Eustatius, St. Kitt s, Jamaica, soon receive the Gospel, 
carried thither by Wesleyan missionaries; and ultimately 
this work of God extends over all the islands under the 
British crown. Other missionaries are sent out as the 
spreading work demands their services. Mr. Baxter sees it 
his duty to give up the lucrative situation held by him in the 
dockyard, and devote himself to the full missionary work. 
And many souls, rescued from darkness and sin, pass away 
to the skies, to swell the great multitude before the throne 
gathered out of every nation and people and kindred and 
tongue. 

" See how great a flame aspires, 
Kindled by a spark of grace ! " 

How little did Mr. Gilbert dream, when he first stood up 
with fear and trembling to speak to a few of his own family 
and dependents about the common salvation, of the extent 
to which the work he was commencing would grow. 
Little did he suppose that he was laying the foundation of a 
Mission destined to prosper, until churches should be planted 
in all the islands of the Caribbean Sea, and tens of thousands 
of souls, recovered by the instrumentality of the preached 
word, should be made meet for the inheritance of the saints 
in light. And far, very far, was it from his thoughts, that 
in introducing to the Western Archipelago the Gospel as 
known and preached by the Methodists, he was lighting up 
a flame that would ultimately melt the chains of the slave, 
break up the power of the oppressor, and utterly abolish 
the horrible system which makes merchandise of the souk 
and bodies of men ; thus wiping 1 off the foulest blot that ever 
stained the escutcheon of Christian Britain. Yet so it was. 
Hr. Gilbert, the planter and slave-holder, was God s chosen 
instrument to initiate a work of grace and salvation that 
has brought peace and joy and hope into thousands of 
families, saved a multitude of souls, and proclaimed liberty to 



PRATER ANSWERED. 2<J 

those who, held in slavery under the British flag, were 
groaning under the lash and plundered of all that is dear to 
man. 

For more than a century the work of God through 
Methodist agency has now heen going on in the western 
isles of the sea, unchecked by oppressive and persecuting 
laws, or by the frequent imprisonment of missionaries, or the 
brutal violence of mobs ; and numerous churches have grown 
up, against which the gates of hell have not prevailed. The 
Wesleyan Mission has had its martyrs too, who have died 
under the whip or through cruel imprisonment, and it has 
rejoiced in examples of Christian heroism and devotedness 
to God worthy of apostolic times. May the word 
of the Lord have free course and be glorified, until all the 
isles of the sea, and all the continents of the earth, shall 
hear the life-giving sound, and the world be full of the 
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea ! 



26 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 



II. 

THE FAMINE OF THE WORD. 

SAD are the sorrows that oftentimes come, 

Heavy and dull, and blighting and chill, 
Shutting the light from our heart and our home, 

Marring our hopes and defying our will. 
But let us not sink beneath the woe 

Tis well, perchance, we are tried and bowed ; 
For be sure though we may not oft see it below, 

"There s a silvery lining to every cloud." 

ELIZA COOK. 

gin HE eye that surveys Jamaica from the sea, rests upon 
^ a scene of surpassing grandeur. Clothed with peren 
nial verdure, the range of mountains extending from 
east to west forms the great backbone of the island. 
Sloping gradually to the sea on either side, they tower to 
the clouds, in which their summits are frequently shrouded ; 
xvhile at other times their perfect outline, strongly marked 
against the clear, cloudless azure of a tropical sky, and seen 
through a calm, pellucid atmosphere, from a distance of forty 
or fifty miles, exhibits that beautiful, soft, dark-blue appear 
ance which secured for them the designation of " the Blue 
Mountains." From the vast reservoirs which these majestic 
mountains embosom flow innumerable streams, often seen 
winding, like a silver thread, through the deep ravines, 
until their waters unite in a river of considerable magnitude, 
imparting unbounded fertility to the soil, and producing a 
luxuriance of vegetable life of which the denizens of more 
temperate zones can scarcely form an adequate conception. 
And it is always so. In these regions, where the icy grasp 
of winter is unknown, and the evergreen cocoa-nut and cab 
bage-palms exhibit their lofty plumes in unchanging beauty, 



THE FAMINE OF THE WOBD. 27 

and the paroquet and tiny humming-bird flit about, where 
little change of temperature is experienced from January to 
December, we find the type of that better land, that uncor- 
rupted paradise, 

" Where everlasting spring abides, 
And never-withering flowers." 

We shall scarcely find on earth a region more beauteous. 
But where shall we find a land more deeply stained with 
crime ? Within these lovely shores, which might serve to 
furnish the poet s description of the natural beauties and 
glories fitted for un sinning man, the foul demons of oppression 
and persecution took up their abode, producing, during more 
than three centuries of grievous wrong, scenes of cruelty 
arid woe over which angels might drop the pitying tear. 
From the unknown graves of slaughtered Indians, from 
whole hecatombs of mangled, murdered slaves, and from, 
many a loathsome cell, which has echoed to the sighs and 
prayers of persecuted and imprisoned Missionaries of the 
Cross, a voice has long been going up, and entering into the 
ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth, against that land of beauty 
and of blood, that abode of nature s grandeur and man s 
depravity, as rivalling in guiltiness the blighted valley of 
Siddim, or the desolated plain whereon once stood, in peer 
less strength and magnificence, the proud and polluted 
Babylon that the Lord overthrew in His wrath. 

The unfortunate Indians, who for ages possessed the soil 
before the foot of the European invader touched the land, 
have long since been swept away by fraud, lust, and cruelty. 
No traces of their existence remain, except the bones of 
the murdered victims, and fragments of rude pottery, 
sometimes accidentally discovered in the almost inaccessible 
caves of the interior, or the wild, wave-beaten caverns of the 
sea-shore. But the blood-stained system of slavery has long 
been in operation here, absorbing and devouring cargo after 
cargo of the unhappy children of Africa, and sending thou 
sands after thousands to a premature, and often to a bloody, 
grave. As yet the philanthropy of Britain has not grown 



28 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

strong enough to put down the revolting traffic in redeemed 
and immortal human beings ; and all the horrors of the 
middle passage continue without mitigation or check. 
Large numbers of Negroes annually disappear under the 
wasting labour of the plantations, and the dread torture of 
the lash. Still they come; for "it is cheaper to buy than 
to breed;" and the used-up, forgotten multitudes, for 
gotten by all but a just and holy God, are replaced by the 
man-stealer from the burning, plundered towns and villages 
of Africa. Father of mercies ! what sad doings of wasting 
and oppression are here ! What thousands of despairing, 
bleeding, broken hearts are here ! What scenes of life-long 
misery and agony are here ! The land is full of blood ! 

And shall not the Lord visit for these things ? Yes, He 
has visited; but it is in mercy, not in judgment ! The 
missionary is here. God has sent, not the sword, nor 
the pestilence, but the herald of peace. And influences 
are at work within these shores destined, with unfailing 
certainty, to undermine and overthrow that monstrous sys 
tem of oppression and wrong, upon which the sainted 
Wesley inscribed a just sentence of condemnation and ruin, 
when he branded it as " the execrable sum of all villanies." 
Brought to these slavery-cursed islands, without any pur 
pose or design of his own, and under circumstances 
clearly indicating the finger of God, the missionary for nearly 
twenty years has been pursuing his hallowed toil within 
these shores. But it is in the face of reproach and persecu 
tion, such as might well discourage one not sustained by the 
cheering and elevating conviction that he is doing the Lord s 
work ; and doing it in the Lord s strength, and not 
his own. Nor is it surprising that the man of God, the 
delegate of heaven, meets with scorn and persecution at the 
hands of men interested in the perpetuation of an 
atrocious system, by which more than three hundred thou 
sand human beings are plundered of all human rights, and 
debased into chattels, brutes, and things. Between such a 
system and the blessed Gospel, of which he is the minister, 
there is the essential and irrepressible antagonism that has 



THE FAMINE OF THE WORD. 29 

ever existed, and must always exist, between light and dark 
ness, and right and wrong. To the upholders of that sys 
tem of unrighteousness and oppression, the missionary, with 
the New Testament in his hand, must needs be an object of 
dread and dislike. They have an intuitive fear that their 
wicked craft will be endangered, if they suffer the light of 
G-od s holy word to reach their slaves. Hence, from the 
beginning, the missionaries have encountered fierce and 
malignant opposition. But God is stronger than men. 
These enemies of truth and righteousness, though as yet 
they know it not, have entered upon a conflict with 
almighty power, before which British colonial slavery and 
its upholders are destined to be swept away. 

There stands in the centre of Kingston, the commercial 
capital of this large and lovely island, a commodious place of 
worship, with a missionaries residence under the same roof. 
It was originally the mansion of one of the city magnates. 
Partly through the contributions obtained by Dr. Coke in 
England and in the island, and partly out of his own private 
fortune, which was never spared in God s cause, this con 
venient locality, with the buildings upon it, has been secured 
for the mission service, and adapted to the two-fold purpose 
it is required to serve. The ground floor furnishes ample 
accommodation for a large family, with an extensive band- 
room attached. The upper part forms a commodious chapel, 
having a low gallery running partly around it. "When com 
pletely filled, this sanctuary receives fifteen hundred or six 
teen hundred persons ; while the band-room, from which a 
broad staircase affords access to the chapel, and a view of the 
pulpit and the preacher, will allow three hundred more from 
below to listen to the word of life. 

God has hallowed this spot by making it the birth-place 
of many souls. Through His blessing on His truth, nearly 
six hundred, in addition to those who have passed away to 
join the assembly before the throne, have been born to glory 
here, and now form a flourishing and increasing Church. 
Many of these are free coloured and black people, formerly 
sadly debased by ignorance and vice. But not a few are. 



30 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

slaves, who, whilst wearing the chains of an earthly owner, 
and degraded into chattels, have been brought, through the 
mighty energy of the Gospel, into spiritual liberty, and 
elevated to the dignity of children and heirs of God. The 
blessed work still goes on ; and souls, made wise unto salva 
tion through faith in the crucified One, are being continually 
added to the Church. 

When God works in saving men, Satan rages; and his 
agents also become active to hinder or destroy the truth. 
Attempts have already been made by the legislative authori 
ties, who are all slave-holders, to place insuperable barriers 
in the way of the instruction of the Negroes, and harass 
their teachers, and, if possible, drive them from the land. 
But the vigilance of Dr. Coke, and the tolerant spirit 
prevailing in his majesty s councils, have hitherto rendered 
these efforts abortive, or prevented them from producing 
more than temporary embarrassment and injury ; inasmuch 
as the intolerant enactments of the local legislature have been 
uniformly disallowed by the home government. 

But during the time these persecuting laws were suffered 
to come into operation, pending the decision of the imperial 
government concerning them, several missionaries have 
experienced the rigours of a Jamaica gaol : and some of them, 
with health broken by persecution, or to avoid the penalty 
of perpetual imprisonment incurred by preaching to 
congregations comprising slaves, have been compelled to 
depart from the colony. Mob violence has also done its 
evil work. But that has been considerably checked by a 
startling event, which, for a season, made a powerful impres 
sion on many thoughtless minds. A fierce opposer of the 
missionaries, named Taylor, notorious for his profaneness 
and profligate habits, made several unsuccessful attempts to 
break up the congregation, and injure the preacher. At 
this time, the chapel not having as yet been obtained, the 
people were accustomed to assemble in a private house in 
the lower part of the city, which could contain only a 
small portion of those who flocked to hear the truth. 
Many, therefore, were compelled to sit or stand both in the 



THE FAMINE OF THE WOED. 31 

front and at the back of the premises. The persecutor having, 
one evening, with his vicious companions, been foiled in the 
attempt to break up the meeting and hinder the service 
from going on, took his departure, giving utterance to a 
profane oath that he would come next Monday with his 
companions on horseback, and " gallop over the crowd till 
he had trampled the accursed Methodists down to hell." 
But God was beforehand with the blasphemer. At the 
very same hour, the following Monday, when the people, 
many of them with great fear and trembling, were gathering, 
as usual, to worship God, the corpse of the persecutor, 
followed by many of the abettors of his wickedness, was 
borne to the churchyard for interment. God had smitten 
him down with fever. For some years after this, a salutary 
dread of the almighty arm, which had been so impressively 
uplifted, modified the rage of the persecutors. 

But the work is growing, and it must be stopped ; for, 
say some, " people cannot pass through the streets of the 
city without being annoyed by singing and prayer." " These 
Methodists are at it all night; the orderly inhabitants 
cannot rest in their beds without being disturbed." " It 
must be put an end to." How to accomplish this is the 
question. Mob violence will not do : that has been tried, 
and it only makes the matter worse; for the more the 
Methodists are opposed in this way, the more they seem to 
increase. And, through the representations of parties in 
England, the home government disallow every bill passed 
by the local legislature to prevent "this preaching and 
psalm-singing, and teaching religion to slaves." "What 
can be done ? " " How shall we silence or get rid of these 
troublesome Methodists, or keep our slaves away from 
them ? " 

^ There is great perplexity amongst the slave-holding 
clique. At length a bright and lucky thought suggests 
itself to the mind of one of the persecutors. " The common 
council can do it." True, the corporation cannot stop the 
preaching in the country parishes; for their authority is 
limited to the city, and the government in London are sure 



32 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

to reject and neutralize any law of the island con 
taining clauses to that effect. But the missionaries can be 
silenced in the city, which is the head quarters of the 
fraternity. With this new light upon the subject, there is 
soon to be observed great activity among the enemies of the 
truth ; frequent mefetings are held, and rumours begin to 
circulate that evil is impending over the Methodists. 
The common council possess authority from their 
charter to frame such ordinances as they may see fit for 
the maintenance of order and good government within the 
city ; and that authority (whether legitimately or otherwise, 
it matters little) may be made to cover such measures as 
are necessary to put an end to "this nuisance of praying 
and preaching." 

At the next meeting of the City Council there is a large 
gathering of the members. Lawyers have left their 
offices, and merchants have deserted their counting-houses, 
to be present; for the purpose to be accomplished is 
felt to be one of great interest and importance. The 
missionaries have heard something of the conspiracy formed 
to deprive them and their people of religious rights, and 
they also are alert to meet the crisis. But it is in vain 
they present themselves with a petition, and request to 
be heard against the passing of the contemplated ordinance. 
In vain they endeavour to secure such a modification of 
its worst provisions as will leave the people, who love the 
truth, some small remnant of liberty to worship God and 
hear His word. A few of the members of the board are 
somewhat dubious concerning their right to enact such 
a law ; but only one gentleman has courage openly to 
resist the meditated oppression. He unhesitatingly ex 
presses it as his opinion that " not only is it wrong thus 
to trample upon the consciences and restrict the religious 
liberties of the Methodist people, but the corporation 
possesses no legal authority for taking such a course." 
Intolerance and wickedness are, however, permitted for a 
season to triumph. Yet there is a boundless Wisdom at 



THE FAMINE OF THE WOED. 33 

work in these things, accomplishing its own purposes, and 
bringing much good out of the apparent evil. 

The ordinance is passed by an overwhelming majority; 
and there is in it much of the subtlety of the old serpent. 
No religious service of any kind is permitted to be held in 
the city after sunset, or before six o clock in the morning, 
under penalty of 100 for each offence, or three months 
imprisonment in the common gaol; the occupier of the 
premises used for such service being also liable to the same 
penalty. And at other times no person is to "presume 
to teach or preach, or expound the Holy Scriptures, or 
offer up public prayer, or sing psalms, in any meeting or 
assembly of Negroes or persons of colour, not being duly 
authorized, qualified, or permitted ; " the city magistrates, 
who passed the ordinance, reserving to themselves the sole 
right of judging concerning such qualification, and of giving 
or withholding the required authority or permission. 

The effect of this ordinance, which comes into imme 
diate operation, is at once to cut off nearly the whole of 
the unfortunate slaves from receiving any instruction what 
ever ; for there can be no religious service held, except on 
the Sabbath, between sunrise and sunset ; and the Sabbath 
is not theirs, nor a single hour of it, apart from the will of 
their owners. No law recognises their right, or gives them 
opportunity, to keep holy the Sabbath day. They are 
absolutely under the control of their owners, and have no 
right except to labour, suffer, and die. The free coloured 
and black people can assemble and join in the public worship 
of God, and hear words whereby they may be saved ; for, as 
yet, the attempt may not be prudently and safely made to 
deprive them of the Methodist services altogether. There 
are some among the city magistrates who do not heartily 
approve of the persecuting ordinance, and one who is 
strongly opposed to it. It will not, therefore, be good 
policy to push matters to an extremity too suddenly, lest 
inconvenient opposition should be aroused in their own 
body. But the purpose of the persecutors is to put a stop 
to the Methodist preaching and praying entirely ; and 



34 ROMANCE OE THE MISSION EIBLD. 

assuredly it must be done. It is only a question of time : 
and the desired opportunity at length presents itself. 

It is a day of gladness at the Coke Chapel Mission house. 
The hearts of the harassed missionaries, already in the field, 
have been cheered by the arrival of a fresh band of labourers 
from Europe, consisting of three missionaries and the wife 
of one of the number, after a long and tempestuous passage 
across the Atlantic. Such an event is always a gladsome 
one to the toil-worn ministers of the cross in a far-off land ; 
especially when, as here, they have to prosecute their labours 
in the midst of great difficulties, and in the face of reproach 
and persecution. It is the evening of the day on which the 
new comers have landed, glad to be released from a tedious 
and uncomfortable confinement in the ship. They and the 
brethren who have welcomed them to the slave-land form a 
pleasant party. But little does it enter into the anticipations 
of any one among them that, within the lapse of a week, 
having only preached one sermon to the people amongst 
whom he hopes to prosecute a long and useful course of 
hallowed toil, that young missionary whose countenance 
glows with the bloom of lusty health, and whose limbs are 
nerved with the vigour of youthful manhood, will, together 
with his young and lovely wife, be sleeping in the grave. 
Yet so it is to be. In the inscrutable arrangements of an 
unerring Providence, both of them, suddenly swept away 
from their labours, and from life, by yellow fever, before the 
week has elapsed, pass away in the same night, and enter 
with glorious triumph their Father s house above. 

But no thought of this enters the mind of any of that 
happy group, which embraces all the missionaries in the 
island. And it is well that a thick and impenetrable veil 
does conceal the future from our view ; or how much more 
frequently would the enjoyments of life be marred ! 

The young missionary and his wife who are so soon to 
join the upper choir, are found to possess voices of more than 
ordinary sweetness and power ; and are well skilled in the 
beautiful melodies popular in the Methodist churches 
in England. It is with these delightful remembrances of 



THE FAMINE OF THE WOED. 35 

home that the party is occupied, voices and spirits blending 
in sweetest harmony, and attracting many outside to listen 
to the pleasing sound. The evening speeds on, and they 

" Forget 
All time, and toil, and care." 

Not one of them observes that the dial indicates a quarter 
of an hour passed beyond those limits within which it is the 
will and pleasure of the common council that psalms and 
hymns may be sung, or prayer offered, in the district under 
their control. They are suddenly and disagreeably reminded 
of the fact by the unceremonious intrusion of a police officer, 
accompanied by one of the city magistrates, and a party of 
the town guard. By these rude and unwelcome visitors 
Messrs. Gilgrass and Knowlan, the resident missionaries, are 
taken into custody, and marched off at once to the cage. 
On the next day the younger of the two is released, but Mr. 
Gilgrass, as the occupier of the Mission house, being held 
guilty of violating the city ordinance, is sentenced to expiate 
the crime of singing Methodist hymns by a month s impri 
sonment in the city gaol. The excellent wife of the culprit 
is permitted, as an act of special grace on the part of the 
civic dignitaries, to share her husband s punishment. 

At the end of the specified time the persecuted missionary 
comes forth from his prison cell to find that another and a 
heavier blow has been struck at the cause of truth by the 
heartless oppressors of the slave. Three years have elapsed 
since the last intolerant law enacted by the island legislative 
authorities ceased to operate, in consequence of its disallow 
ance by the sovereign council : and now another attempt is 
made to prevent missionary instruction being given to the 
slaves. In hope of being able to elude the vigilance of the 
friends of Missions in England, the legislature, sanctioned in 
their oppressive policy by Sir Eyre Coote, the governor, 
(such men deserve all the immortality which the press can 
give to their evil works,) have embodied in an act entitled 
"The Consolidated Slave Law" several clauses intended 
to shut up the Negro in hopeless ignorance, by preventing 
the Christian missionary from approaching him with 

D 2 



36 BOMANCE OF TLE MISSION FIELD. 

the word oflife. This wicked law subjects " every Method 
ist missionary, or other sectary or preacher," who shall 
presume to instruct the slaves, or receive them into their 
" houses, chapels, or conventicles, of any sort or description," 
to a fine of " twenty pounds for every slave found to have 
been there," or " perpetual imprisonment until such fines 
are paid." 

Such a persecuting enactment is not more likely to receive 
the approval of the king in council than others of a similar 
character which have preceded it, and have been disallowed, 
if its true character and tendency become known. It is not 
likely to escape the observation of the watchful friends of 
the slave, that this act is intended to impart greater inten 
sity to the oppression that crushes him down; and the 
designs of its originators will be bained. But their evil 
purposes will be so far accomplished, that the act will come 
into operation for some time, pending the decision of the 
home government concerning it. Thus an opportunity and 
pretext will be given for working great annoyance and injury 
to the missionaries and their flocks, during many months 
that must elapse before the fate of the Bill can be officially 
made known. The result soon becomes apparent. It is not 
possible to keep the Negroes out of the chapels, when they 
are opened for public service : and to avoid the penalty of 
perpetual imprisonment, since it is not practicable for them 
to pay the fines imposed by the new law, the missionaries 
are compelled for the present to desist from their public 
labours. Excepting that in the. city, all the chapels in 
the island are closed, and cease to echo the voice of prayer 
and praise, and the proclamation of mercy and salvation to 
the peeled and plundered slaves. 

Coke chapel still resounds with the delightful exercises of 
Christian worship. This privilege, however, is secured to 
some of the free population only by the harsh precaution of 
placing persons at each door of the building, to prevent the 
entrance of any unfortunate slave. It is often touching and 
heart-rending in the extreme, to hear the pleadings and re 
monstrances of these deeply -wronged children of Africa, thus 



THE FAMINE OF THE WORD. 37 

driven from the footstool of God. They can scarcely be 
made to understand the cruel necessity that exists of exclu 
ding them from the holy place, without such explanations 
being entered into as would lay open the person giving them 
to the capital charge of constructive treason. It is a capital 
crime to render slaves dissatisfied with their condition or 
with the law. But thus it must be until the dawning of 
better times ; or the sanctuary must be altogether closed. 
Nor is it long before this further great wrong is also perpe 
trated, and the voice of the preacher is hushed, and there is 
silence in the house of the Lord. 

The enemies of religion in the city have merely waited for 
the opportunity of conveniently accomplishing their evil 
purposes, and now the time has arrived. A few weeks only 
have elapsed since the infamous " consolidated slave law " 
came into operation, shutting up all the chapels in the rural 
districts, when the missionaries in Kingston are summoned 
before their old adversaries of the common council, to show 
their qualification and authority for preaching in the city. 
Exhibiting certificates which show that they have taken the 
oaths and subscribed the declarations required by the 
toleration laws of England, they claim to be duly qualified ; 
but are met with the inquiry, " What are the laws of England 
to us ? " They are then informed that they will be allowed 
to preach no more, under the heavy penalties specified in the 
city ordinance, until they are duly licensed by the magistrates 
of the city. 

A respectful application is then and there made to the 
bench for such a licence as the magistrates consider to be 
necessary; which calls forth the peremptory response, 
" Indeed, you will not get one." Thus, by a godless, slave- 
holding oligarchy, are ministers and people deprived of their 
religious rights as British subjects ; and the public worship 
of the Almighty is held to be a crime, and treated as such. 

At the court of quarter sessions, held during the following 
month, a similar application is made. But care has been 
taken that the bench shall be occupied only, or chiefly, by 
those who belong to the faction opposed to religion and 



38 KOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

religious teaching. To the sorrow of hundreds, the mission 
aries are scornfully driven from the court, menaced with a 
most rigid enforcement of the penalties imposed by the perse 
cuting ordinance, if they dare, in any way, to violate its pro 
visions by preaching, praying, or singing amongst the people. 

Thus, for a season, Satan has triumphed. Intolerance 
and oppression are rampant throughout the land ; and the 
oppressors of the slave, and the enemies of the Gospel, are 
everywhere jubilant. There is sorrow in the habitations of 
the just ; and a dense gloom has darkened the prospects of 
many a poor Negro, who has been permitted to catch a 
glimpse of the distant immortality beyond this vale of 
suffering and woe, only, as it now appears, that it may be 
lost to him for ever. From Manchioneal in the east, to 
Negril in the west, no Christian sanctuary now opens its 
portals where the poor slave can hear of Jesus and the 
cross, the pardon of sin, and the bright and better land 
where there is no curse, and the weary are at rest, and God 
Himself doth wipe away the tears from all eyes. True, 
there are men in the land called rectors of parishes ; but 
troops of illegitimate Mulatto children deriving their pater 
nity from them, and their own mangled and murdered 
slaves, proclaim, in too many instances, that these are no 
ministers of Christ s pure Gospel ; and that for the injured, 
disconsolate Negro to go to them for instruction or comfort 
would be like expecting to find grapes on thorns, or figs on 
thistles. 

There are buildings called parish churches that might 
possibly contain one in five hundred of the population of 
the parish. But it is no uncommon thing for these to 
remain closed, without minister or congregation, for months 
together. Slight, indeed, is the loss sustained when it is 
so ; for, at best, the light in these sanctuaries is scarcely 
enough to make the darkness visible. Nor do these ministers 
ever consider that any beyond the thinly- scattered whites 
of the population form a portion of the charge with which 
they are concerned. All the hopes of the sons and daughters 
of Africa, whether bond or free, so far as religious instruc- 



THE FAMINE OP THE V, OBD. 39 

tion and the joys and blessings of religion are concerned, 
centre in the missionary. Now, alas ! he is silenced ; and 
it is a dubious question whether the existing generation 
will ever be permitted again to hear, in public, the voice of 
the Lord s servant, pointing the weary, sin-burdened soul to 
the atoning Lamb of God. 

The months roll on, and repeated efforts have been 
made to remove the restrictions laid upon the worship of 
God in the city, and afford the people the opportunity, so 
ardently desired by them, of hearing again the preaching of 
God s saving truth. The governor has been appealed to. 
But the man who could put his signature to the " consoli 
dated slave law," and so pervert the power unworthily 
vested in him as the representative of the crown, as to 
sanction and aid the wicked purposes of a persecuting slave 
oppressing faction, could have no disposition, even if he 
possessed the power, to interpose between the injured mission 
aries with their flocks and the municipal authorities. From 
him no help can be obtained. It is a case in which he 
has no authority, the city magistrates not being subject to 
his control. They do not, like the general magistracy of 
the island, receive their commissions from the crown, but 
from popular election. At several successive quarter-sessions, 
the missionaries apply for licences, such as the common 
council may consider sufficient to warrant them in the 
exercise of their ministry in the city ; but with no result, 
except a stern, indignant refusal. 

A year and a half has passed away since the voice of any 
missionary has been heard in public within these shores. 
In the rural districts, the societies that had been gathered, 
with many prayers and tears, have been scattered. They 
consisted largely of slaves ; and it has been impossible to 
hold among them religious services of any kind. The 
deserted sanctuaries in which they loved to hear of the 
things of God, and where they had often experienced the 
elevating, hallowing influences which threw athwart the 
dark gloom of their condition bright gleams of hope, and 
the only rays of comfort whereof their sad and wretched 



40 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

state was susceptible, now stand in silence and solitude ; 
serving but to remind them, when passing by, of their own 
utter desolation, and tempting them to believe that they are 
not only foully wronged by man, but abandoned of God. 
They no longer even look upon their teachers ; for the 
silenced ministers, unable to gain any access to their people, 
have departed to other scenes of toil. 

In the city it is somewhat different. The sanctuary is 
closed, the pulpit vacant, and the missionary s voice no longer 
heard in public devotion. But two of these servants of 
Christ remain at the post of duty assigned to them, until 
one is compelled, through sickness, to take his departure. 
They cannot preach or pray, or even sing a hymn, openly ; 
but they can visit from house to house, amongst those who 
are not in bondage, and converse with them on the things of 
God. Now and then they can minister a word of comfort and 
encouragement to the down-cast slave, as he crosses their 
path ; and occasionally, when no malignant eye is upon 
them, they can kneel in secret prayer with their sorrow-, 
stricken charge. Best of all, the Lord is working with them ; 
and they are not without many delightful proofs of His 
almighty power to save. 

But the persecuting " consolidated slave bill ! " What has 
become of that ? Measures have been taken in England, 
by the friends of missions, to expose the hypocrisy of its 
pretensions, and make known its real character and tendency 
to the members of the privy council ; and his majesty has 
been petitioned to disallow it, and give to the thousands of 
his slave-subjects in Jamaica the right to hear of and to 
worship God. But more than a year has elapsed, and no 
official intelligence has been communicated to the govern 
ment of the enactment of such a law. When inquiry is 
made, it transpires that the time-serving governor of Jamaica, 
Sir Eyre Coote, expecting that the unrighteous enactment 
will certainly be disallowed, has so far pandered to the evil 
passions and purposes of the planters, as designedly to 
keep it back, and thus allow the longest possible time for 
the enemies of slave instruction to carry its oppressive 



THE FAMINE OF THE WOKD. 41 

clauses into effect, and break up and scatter the missionary 
churches. This, however, can be done no longer. After 
being in operation more than a year and a half, it is at last 
duly presented to the privy council, from whom it receives 
its well merited fate. The gladsome news circulates 
through the land that his majesty in council has disallowed 
the vile law ; and it is no longer a crime, punishable with a 
heavy penalty, to preach the Grospel to slaves. Much injury 
has been done by the scattering of these poor sheep ; but 
many of them soon gladly assemble together, and the 
people go up again with joyful hearts to worship Jehovah 
in His temples. 

Unhappily, the disallowance of the "consolidated slave 
law " brings no relief to the missionary and the society in 
the city. The intolerant city ordinance still remains in 
force; for his majesty in council cannot disallow that. 
The chapel is still closed, and many hundreds of devout 
people are deprived of the bread of life, arid denied the 
right of worshipping their Maker in the public ordinances 
of religion. Persecution is rife and triumphant ; and so 
closely are they watched by malignant foes, that the mis 
sionary and his people are often interrupted in their family 
worship by volleys of stones hurled against the jalousies and 
windows of their dwellings. The teachers are silent ; but 
still they remain, and go in and out among their flock, con 
veying to many hearts in private the gladdening truths they 
may not openly publish. Meanwhile, their brethren at the 
country stations, freed from the restrictions imposed by the 
rejected law for a season, are now joyfully and successfully 
prosecuting their labours amongst the slaves of the planta 
tions. The persecutors are disappointed and angry ; but 
exulting in their liberty, and grateful to Him who has 
curbed the wrath of their enemies, the missionaries, having 
resumed their labour of love in the rural parishes with 
renewed energy, preach the hopes of eternal life to their 
swarthy, suffering charge ; and thousands of Negroes are 
gladdened with the prospect of final deliverance within the 
veil from the manifold evils of their present unhappy lot. 



42 BOMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

Many hearts in the city yearn for like blessings, as they 
think of the country chapels crowded with earnest worshippers, 
listening to the uplifted voice of the Lord s messengers, and 
drinking in words of heavenly instruction. Again and 
again the attempt is renewed to move the hearts of the 
city magistrates, and obtain the removal of those unjust and 
painful restrictions under which the people labour. But it 
is in vain : and there is no alternative but patient submis 
sion, until the Lord shall interpose in answer to prayer, and 
break the bonds of the oppressor. 

"The famine of the word," as the people significantly 
describe it, is painfully felt ; but they are not without 
delightful and encouraging manifestations of the Lord s 
presence with His people in their affliction, and of His 
power to save. There is no public ministration of the 
word of life, no warning of sinners from the pulpit to flee 
from the wrath to come. But the Spirit of the Lord can 
work, and accomplish great and saving results, apart from 
outward means. Persecution can silence the voice of the 
Lord s servant ; but it cannot enchain the Divine Spirit, or 
place limits to His gracious operations. It is a remarkable 
and encouraging fact, which forces itself upon the observa 
tion even of the enemies of the truth, that the work of God 
advances more rapidly, and spreads more deeply and 
widely within the municipal boundaries, than it has ever 
done before. The efforts put forth to suppress and destroy 
Methodism have only imparted to it greater strength and 
influence. 

The great adversary has, in this case, as often before, 
outwitted himself, and the persecutors have defeated their 
own purpose. This virulent persecution of the unoffending 
Methodists, the outrage upon conscience and religious 
liberty, involved in shutting up the house of God, and 
dragging the missionary to a loathsome gaol, has awakened 
a powerful sympathy in the breasts of hundreds, where 
utter indifference to religion and its professors prevailed 
before ; and multitudes now look with kindly interest 
upon the people who are tyrannically denied the right to- 



THE FAMINE OF THE WORD. 43- 

sing and pray. Thus many are predisposed to receive 
gracious impressions ; and the consequence is, that numerous 
accessions are made to the society, both of men and women, 
bond and free. These gathered into the church in times of 
trial and persecution, are known through many after years 
as beautiful patterns of Christian holiness, and burning 
flames of light and love. Some of the finest examples of 
Christian devotedness and usefulness the writer has ever 
known, were amongst those who were gathered into the 
society during "the seven years famine of the word." 
Prohibited from preaching, the missionary can visit the 
members of his flock ; and everywhere he is welcomed as an 
angel of the Lord. Very often the opportunity of offering 
a short prayer is earnestly improved ; and many a brief word 
of admonition or affectionate counsel, dropped by the man 
of G-od in these visits, becomes as bread cast upon the 
waters, to be found after many days. 

The class-leaders also, men and women of deep and rich 
experience in the things of God, who have been chastened 
by years of persecution and rebuke, are neither idle nor 
unfruitful. Some of them can only discharge their duties 
by periodical visitation of their members at their own 
habitations; but this is done with an earnest, untiring 
assiduity, that shows how truly their hearts are in the 
work. And they, through God s blessing, not only keep 
the members of their classes from yielding to discourage 
ment, and falling away, but are frequently adding fresh 
names to their class lists, augmenting the candidates for 
eternal life. There is not a street, or lane, or alley in the 
city where the influence of this work of God is not felt. 

But some of the leaders who have slave members in their 
classes, or others whom it is impracticable for divers reasons 
to visit at their own homes, have recourse to various means 
of evading the persecuting ordinance, and escaping also the 
vigilant eyes of their foes. There is one whose employment 
keeps him at home all day throughout the week ; but on 
Sunday he is free to go out, and his members meet him in 
the churchyard, varying the hour and the spot so as not ta 



44 BOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

attract attention ; and there he speaks to them concerning 
the things of God, and gives them Christian counsel. 
Another leader meets his members in the churchyard, just 
after nightfall, and before the nine o clock bell admonishes 
all slaves to seek the shelter of their homes ; they being 
liable to punishment if found abroad after the bell has 
tolled. There, amongst the tombs, they hold Christian 
converse, assured that the superstitious fears of the people 
will secure them from interruption, as none will venture to 
enter the churchyard after ib has become dark. But every 
week they choose a different evening, lest their assembling 
at one particular time should bring upon them the 
observation of the enemy. Another of the leaders, in a 
similar way, causes his members to meet, at a time 
appointed from week to week, under a tree standing in an 
open field beyond the city boundaries, during the interval 
betwixt sunset and the tolling of the nine o clock bell. 

But there is one female leader with whom none of these 
methods are available, and who cannot visit the members at 
their homes ; for most of them are domestic slaves. She is 
therefore under the necessity of finding out some other 
means of holding Christian intercourse with them ; and she 
finally decides upon a plan that serves the purpose well, 
year after year, until the dawning of better days. A par 
ticular morning is selected, but frequently changed, to 
escape observation. At the earliest dawn of day, the 
members repair to a certain street ; this also being changed 
from week to week. Passing along the street, the leader 
meets one or more of her people at short intervals, and holds 
a brief conversation with them on the affairs of the soul, 
until she has seen and spoken to them all. By these, and 
other equally novel methods, the class meetings, so import 
ant in Methodism, continue to be held ; the society is kept 
well together ; the people, animated and encouraged by their 
devoted leaders, continue steadfastly growing in grace, and 
the work of the Lord grows and prospers. 

Four years have gone since the persecuting ordinance 
was passed, and all this time " the famine of the word " 



THE FAMINE OF THE "WORD. 45 

has continued. On the scriptural precept of returning 
good for evil, the corporation of the city have been 
accommodated for some months with the use of the 
chapel for the free school, while the proper building has 
been undergoing renovation. This act of kindness on the 
part of the Methodists, it is hoped, will soften the stony 
hearts of the city magistrates, and dispose them to show 
less hostility towards the missionaries and their work. 
Acting on the assumption that the spirit of intolerance 
has so far abated as to admit of the recommencement of 
public worship without interruption, Mr. Wiggins, the 
resident missionary, ventures to open the chapel and occupy 
the pulpit, preaching one Sabbath both in the forenoon and 
afternoon. The next morning makes it manifest that the 
spirit of persecution has in no degree been modified ; for 
the offending preacher is summoned to the police office, 
and sentenced to a month s confinement in the common 
gaol. He is also informed by the magistrates that a 
repetition of the crime will be visited with the full penalty 
of the law. Thus again the hopes of the people are 
blighted. But the sympathizing multitude, who crowd 
every avenue leading to the police court, and attend their 
beloved minister with tears to the gaol, make it evident to 
the intolerant magistrates, not only that their efforts to 
suppress this hated and much dreaded Methodism have 
utterly failed, but that it has become more formidable than 
ever. 

Another year and a half have passed away ; and still 
the house of God is shut up, while the failing health of 
the imprisoned missionary, broken by confinement in a 
loathsome cell, has compelled him to bid a reluctant farewell 
to his loving, suffering flock, and try what a change to 
another scene of labour will do to recruit his wasted energies. 
After a short interval, a successor arrives, and the people 
are gladdened once more to behold their teacher. Since 
the last imprisonment of the minister of the truth, God 
has been at work, and His power has been terribly 
displayed. The pestilence, walking in darkness, has borne 



46 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

thousands to the grave; and a destructive hurricane has 
swept over the guilty country, producing wide-spread 
devastation both by sea and land. An earthquake, more 
dreadful and alarming than any experienced since the 
awful visitation that submerged Port Royal, the capital 
of the colony, beneath the waves, more than a hundred 
and twenty years before, has shaken the island to its 
centre, greatly changing the aspect of the country, and 
speaking with its voice of thunder to bid a thoughtless, 
guilty people stand in awe of God. These upliftings of 
the almighty arm have not been without effect. Greater 
intensity has been imparted to the religious feeling, now 
widely pervading the city. Even the persecuting faction 
have not been entirely insensible to the influence of these 
providential visitations ; and it becomes manifest that a 
considerable change has taken place in their feelings and 
views, with regard to the missionaries, since, eighteen 
months ago, they gnashed their teeth with rage against a 
Christian minister, and sent him to breathe the fetid atmo 
sphere of the city prison. 

This change is so marked that it is considered advisable 
to make another effort to remove the existing disabilities, 
by requesting the city magistrates to grant to Mr. 
Davis, the newly-arrived minister, such a licence as 
these dignitaries may deem sufficient to warrant the re 
opening of the chapel for public worship. With many 
misgivings the petition is prepared and presented; and 
to the surprise and joy of thousands, after a few merely 
technical objections to the form of the petition, its prayer 
is granted. Mr. Davis is licensed, and declared to be duly 
qualified. Several weeks elapse before the chapel is ready 
to receive the congregation ; and again its hallowed walls 
re-echo the sounds of prayer and praise, and the proclamation 
of the ever-blessed Gospel. 

But dark and mysterious are the ways of Providence ! 
Scarcely has this great joy been realized by the anxious 
people, many of whom have waited for it for some years, 
when it is turned into sorrow, the voice of God s 



THE FAMINE OF THE WOED. 47 

lionoured messenger, upon whose lips multitudes have hung 
with unmixed delight, being suddenly hushed in the silence 
of the grave. The deadly fever has seized him ; and 
after a brief illness he passes away to the church above ; 
and the sanctuary of the Lord is left again to solitude 
and silence. 

While this youthful labourer, snatched away in his 
prime, is being laid in the dust, amid the loud lamentations 
of the afflicted multitude, who grieve for his removal 
from among them as a mother mourns the loss of her first 
born, Jehovah, the faithful hearer of prayer, is bringing 
another to their help. He is already crossing the Atlantic, 
for whom is reserved the happy privilege of triumphing 
over, and finally removing, those legal hindrances which 
have so long obstructed the work of God. Just a month 
after Mr. Davis had been removed by death, Mr. Shipman, 
with his wife, arrives upon the scene. But when applica 
tion is made on his behalf to the city magistrates for a 
licence, intolerance has gathered strength, and is found to 
be once more in the ascendant. A party in the municipal 
body, styling themselves anti-Wesleyans, have taken 
possession of the court, and the licence is peremptorily 
refused, although the application is supported by the earnest 
recommendation of several of the principal inhabitants of the 
city. Again and again it is repeated, but always with the 
same result. The more liberal party which has risen up in 
the city council is invariably outvoted by the. bigots of 
slavery. 

Discouraged by these repeated disappointments, spreading 
over some months, the baffled missionary thinks of retiring 
to some other sphere of labour, where he will be able to 
exercise his ministry without interruption. But it is often 
the darkest just before the dawn. When he is almost 
giving place to despondency, a friendly member of the 
common council comes forward to his aid, advising him 
to wait patiently for a while, and suggesting a plan 
likely to defeat the purposes of the persecutors. The 



48 EOMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

co-operation of several members of the municipal body, 
who are friendly to missionary efforts, and can be relied 
on, is quietly engaged; and they all agree to meet 
at a given hour, when the opposing party, in conse 
quence of having heard nothing concerning the intention 
of the missionary to apply again for a licence, are likely to 
be off their guard. At the appointed time, arriving from 
different points, the friendly magistrates all assemble in the 
court. Mr. Shipman, who is waiting close at hand, is 
immediately summoned ; and before theopposers can muster 
in sufficient force to prevent it, the missionary is duly 
licensed, by competent authority, to exercise his ministry 
within the municipal boundaries. All over the city there 
is great joy that the doors of the Lord s house are again 
to be opened, and its walls resound once more with the 
songs of Christian worshippers. 

There is in the society a white lady a Mrs. Smith 
who was among the first seals of Dr. Coke s ministry 
in Jamaica, and a member of the first class formed in 
the island, consisting of eight members. At one of the 
services, soon after he arrived in the colony, the life of 
the good Doctor was threatened by a brutal mob of slave 
holders. This lady, with noble, undaunted courage, con 
fronted them ; and having no more formidable weapon at- 
command, she kept the savage, cowardly assailants at bay 
with a pair of scissors, until the Doctor was conducted to a 
place of safety. A mother in Israel, and greatly and 
deservedly beloved, her labours and prayers have been 
unceasing, during the long persecution and privation which 
the church has experienced. A pattern of holiness and zeal 
to all, she has encouraged the timid, strengthened the weak, 
and comforted the afflicted; and her noble example has 
confirmed many in the right way. 

To her, by universal consent, is assigned the honour 
of opening the gates of the sanctuary to the crowd 
of anxious worshippers. The 3rd of September is the 
appointed day; more than seven years having then 
elapsed since the persecuting ordinance which shut up 



THE FAMINE o? THE WORD. 49 

the chapel began to take effect. When the Lour for Divine 
service arrives, several thousands have gathered in the 
large square in front of the chapel. The missionary lifts 
from its place the heavy bar that keeps the gates closed. 
Then Mrs. Smith, lifting her voice in earnest prayer to God 
that persecution may never again be permitted to close 
them, so as to shut out faithful worshippers from the 
Lord s house, throws tliem wide open. The people enter, 
and crowd every aisle and seat ; and the minister ascends 
the pulpit, preaching the word of life to the throng of 
eager, delighted listeners, from Psalm Ixxxiv. 1-4 : " How 
amiable are Thy tabernacles," &c. The long dearth of the 
bread of life, which multitudes have keenly felt, and deplored 
with many tears, exists no longer. God has turned the 
sadness of His people into joy. He has " made them glad 
according to the days wherein He afflicted them, and the 
years wherein they suffered evil." 

How wonderful are the ways of the Lord ! How easy is 
it for Him to baffle the enemies of His church, and to con 
found the devices of persecutors ! They cursed the Lord s 
people, but He changed the curse into a blessing. As the 
Lord Himself hath said, " He that sitteth in the heavens 
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision." 
They thought to crush and destroy the infant church of 
Christ, but He has strengthened and enlarged it abundantly. 
When the hand of the oppressor closed the gates of the 
sanctuary, the church enrolled five hundred and sixty 
members only. When the over-ruling Providence of God 
caused them to be re-opened, after what some called " the 
seven years night," never again to be closed by the hand 
of violence, the society was found to have increased to 
one thousand seven hundred and twenty-three. 

Those added to the church during this time of trial 
were a choice and peculiar people. The writer has often 
been delighted and profited, when, in the lovefeasts, he 
listened to their profoundly interesting narrations of a rich 
Christian experience. Many hearts have been 



50 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

ened, and many sincere seekers after salvation encouraged, 
as they heard them tell of the presence and power of 
the Head of the Church among His people, when they, 
with many others, were brought to God, and saved from 
the guilt and power of sin, during " the seven years famine 
of the word." 



III. 

THE MARTYR MISSIONARY. 

A PATRIOT S blood may earn, indeed, 
And for a time insure to his loved land 
The sweets of liberty and equal laws ; 
But martyrs struggle for a brighter prize, 
And win it with more pain. Their blood is shed 
In confirmation of the noblest claim, 
Our claim to feed upon immortal truth, 
To walk with God, to be Divinely free, 
To soar, and to anticipate the skies. 

COWPER. 

HE date of our tale carries us back, on the stream of 
) j\ time, some sixteen or seventeen years. Far up among 
^ L the mountains, in the interior of Jamaica, a mission 
ary, who has borne the toils and anxieties of fifteen years 
in that land of oppression, (during which time he had passed 
through many vicissitudes, and rejoiced greatly over the 
downfall of colonial slavery,) is standing by the side of a 
low, plain, brick tomb, undistinguished by any inscription 
to inform the beholder whose ashes are slumbering in 
the dust beneath. The tomb is discoloured by time, and 
moss-grown. Grass and weeds almost conceal it : for it 
is nearly twenty years since that grave was opened to 
receive the remains of a victim of bigotry and persecution, 
who rests there awaiting the morning of the resurrection, 
and " the glory that is to be revealed " in the saints at " the 
manifestation of the sons of God." To visit that tomb 
the missionary has taken a journey of some miles. He 
has himself confronted the banded brotherhood of perse 
cutors, and suffered from the malice of the oppressors of the 
slave ; and he is profoundly interested in the thrilliiYo. 

E 2 



52 ROMANCE OF T11JS MISSION HELD. 

memories of that earlier period, when the loathsome prison 
cell, in this part of the island, frequently echoed to the 
hymns and praises of incarcerated missionaries of the Cross, 
and when the martyr who sleeps here, where " the wicked 
cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest," was hunted 
by intolerance to the grave. 

The evening is most lovely. Gentle, sweet, and balmy 
are the breezes sweeping by, just sufficient to temper the 
heat, and bear to the gratified sense the delicious fragrance 
gleaned from rich orange blossoms adorning a mul 
titude of trees with which the surrounding pastures 
abound. The western sky is lighted up with splendour and 
beauty : for the sun is near his setting, and paints one of 
those gorgeous scenes which are never witnessed to such 
advantage as within the tropics. As the missionary turns 
his face to the magnificent west, he thinks of " glory," and 
" the saints in glory." There, within the narrow confines of 
that lowly and unadorned grave upon which his foot is resting, 
lies all that is mortal of a martyred servant of Jesus, long 
since literally crumbled to dust ; for in this torrid zone the 
original curse, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou 
return," more rapidly receives its accomplishment, when the 
spirit has departed, than in a more temperate elime. But 
he calls to mind the moment when the soul of the young 
missionary, redeemed and purified by precious blood, ceased 
to belong to earth. He follows it in its upward flight, as 
holy angels " bear it to the throne of love," and "place it at 
the Saviour s feet ; " and then he thinks of that spirit before 
the throne, realizing the " far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory." And it requires but an effort of imagina 
tion to fancy that it is there in the heavens before him, all 
radiant with gold, and purple, and many varied hues that 
the departed one has found his final rest. 

The scenery all around is very pleasant to the eye. The 
spot upon which the visitor stands, by the side of that long- 
closed grave, is in a lovely valley amidst the mountains of 
St. Ann s. No cane-fields or sugar-works meet the sight : 
for it is a part of the country altogether devoted to pasture. 



THE MAUTTK MISSIONARY. 53 

There are gentle glades, and undulating hills, where waves 
the luxuriant Guinea grass, introduced into the country by 
a slave-ship from Africa in a way that may be called acci 
dental, and proving a rich and invaluable boon to the 
planters. There are clumps of cedar and other valuable 
trees, giving a rich and park-like appearance to the land 
scape ; interspersed with vast numbers of the or-ange, now 
white with its delicate snowy blossoms, so fragrant and so 
pure. Here and there towers an ancient specimen of the 
wild cotton, whose giant stem, branchless, shooting up 
eighty or ninety feet, at length throws wide its massive 
umbrageous limbs. Vast patches of woodland away in the 
distance diversify the scene, occasionally broken by openings 
of greater or less extent, marking spots where the eman 
cipated Negro has partly cleared the virgin land from the 
heavy timber which covered his newly purchased freehold, 
and where he has fixed his humble cottage, now that he 
has become an owner of the soil to which he was attached 
first as a slave, and then as an apprenticed labourer. 
Encircling the whole, and bounding the landscape, may be 
traced, through a pellucid atmosphere, the outline of 
immense ranges of mountains stretching far away, covered 
with forests, the growth of many centuries ; trees under 
whose grateful shade the aboriginal Indians, through many 
generations, indulged their love of ease, or revelled in the 
dance which was their chief delight, long before the treacher 
ous Spaniard invaded their peaceful land. These forests, 
in their vast abundance, show how little has been done to 
bring this fruitful Queen of the Antilles under general 
cultivation. 

All around is enchanting ; but the missionary s eye rests 
again upon the humble grave, and then, close at hand, upon 
the ruins of a mission chapel, and a dilapidated but still 
tenantable mission house, exhibiting a strange and sad con 
trast to the smiling beauty of the landscape, and telling, in 
their mournful desolation, with silent eloquence, of days 
when all bad passions were called into exercise to oppose the 
faithful preaching of the truth. On this spot there stood a 



54 BOMANCE OF THE MISSION PI ELD. 

Christian sanctuary, built of the hard wood of the country, 
and capable of receiving from five to six hundred worship 
pers. Its walls once resounded with the proclamation of the 
glorious Gospel, and the unrivalled hymns of the Wesleys, 
sung by hundreds, still bearing the yoke of earthly master?, 
while, spiritually emancipated, they exulted in the liberty 
wherewith Christ had made them free. And there, at one 
end of the house of God, was the unpretending but sufficient 
house for the residence of the missionary. A few uncovered 
rafters overhead, part of the framework of the floor, and 
several upright pieces of timber that once supported the 
roo f, these only remain of the attractive and commodious 
house of prayer that formerly adorned this place, inviting the 
sable sons and daughters of Africa to come and join in the 
worship of the Holy One, who " hath made of one blood all 
nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." 
And the pleasant dwelling, though still partly inhabited, is 
but the wreck of what it was years ago, before this lovely 
station was made desolate by persecution, stirred up by a 
slave-oppressor, whose position as rector of the parish 
imparts a deeper turpitude to cruelties and atrocities 
suffered by his own and other people s slaves at his hands, 
or through his instigation. As the visitor stands there, 
at the lonely tomb, until the sun disappears behind the 
distant hills, and the fast-receding splendours amid which 
the glorious orb has dipped beneath the distant western 
wave admonish him that the time has come for remounting 
his horse, he is busy with memories, both pleasing and 
painful, associated with the history of that desecrated 
sanctuary, and the martyr s grave. The scenes of by-gone 
days rise in a vivid light to his mind, like a series of dis 
solving views, awakening mingled emotions of indignation 
and sympathy, but all merging in profound gratitude to 
Him, the Wise and Good, who hath made " the wrath of 
man to praise" Him, while "the remainder of wrath" He 
hath " restrained." Let some of these changing scenes pass 
in review before us. 

A meeting is held in the humble chapel at Spanish Town, 



THE MARTYR MISSIONAET. 5t> 

the capital of the colony, called by the Spaniards Santiago- 
de-la-Vega, where are situated the princely residence of the 
governor, and an extensive suite of government buildings and 
offices ; in the midst of which stands Rodney s temple, an 
ornamental structure erected to the honour of our naval hero 
of that name, and intended to commemorate the victories he 
gained in these western seas. The temple is adorned with a 
costly marble statue of the admiral, and several massive 
guns taken from the captured or sunken ships of the enemy. 
The meeting which is going on in the humble place of wor 
ship is not one of the regular public services, but a meeting 
held by the choir for practising tunes to be sung in the 
public ordinances of the church. Attracted by the music, a 
gentleman enters the building, and quietly takes a distant 
seat, listening with evident interest. When the little 
assembly of harmonists breaks up, the stranger does not 
retire ; but, after their departure, he advances, and, apolo 
gizing for the apparent intrusion, introduces himself to the 
missionary as Mr. Stephen Drew, a barrister, residing on 
his own estate in St. Ann s parish, called Belmont. In 
the conversation that follows, the minister discovers that 
his new acquaintance is not a stranger to religious influences 
and religious feelings ; and it transpires, all the more interest 
ingly and pleasingly because so unusual among the planters 
of Jamaica, that he has adopted the practice of reading 
prayers among his slaves every Sabbath morniog, and that 
he usually accompanies this service with one of Wesley s 
sermons. This pleasant interview, destined to lead to many 
very important results, ends with the expression, on the 
part of the stranger, of a desire to have his slaves instructed 
in the great truths of the Gospel by Wesleyan ministers, and 
a polite and earnest request that the missionary will favour 
him with a speedy visit at his residence in the mountains. 
An early opportunity is taken by the Spanish Town minister 
to comply with the invitation ; and, after a ride of about 
forty miles, through some of the most romantic and mag 
nificent scenery in the world, he arrives at Belmont, and 
receives a warm welcome. During this first short visit, the 



56 BOMAKCE OF T1IE MISSION FIELD. 

missionary opens his commission among the inhabitants o 
St. Ann s parish, by preaching every evening to the family 
of his host, and the slaves resident on the " pen," (it would 
be called a grazing farm in England or America,) the wel 
come tidings of salvation through the atonement of Jesus. 
It is the first time that wide-spread parish has seen a Chris 
tian minister preaching to a congregation of slaves ; for all 
are slaves, except the master and his family, and two or three 
white officials who have the direction and oversight of the 
property. It is true there is a parish church ; but this is 
small, and ten miles distant. Nor was it built with a view 
to the instruction of the Negro race, but for the white 
inhabitants ; these only being regarded as under the pastoral 
care of the island clergy. As to the man who officiates 
there, his claim to the designation of a Christian minister is 
more than questionable : for all that ever was Christian 
about him is sunk and lost in the brutal and callous slave 
holder, of which class he exhibits the worst type ; while 
the owner of Belmont is an example of the most indulgent 
and the best. 

After a few days visit, which has awakened a considerable 
interest in the neighbourhood, the missionary retraces his 
path to his home in the low, hot, dusty town of Santiago- 
<le-la-Vega, with pleasant memories of the journey, and the 
new friendships and associations he has formed. Some 
weeks later, the impaired health of his wife induces him to 
accept a pressing invitation from his Belmont host and 
hostess to give the sufferer the benefit of a change to the 
cool and more salubrious climate of the St. Ann s moun 
tains. Removed thither by gentle stages, the sinking 
invalid in that pleasant region recruits her wasted energies ; 
and soon the pallid, sunken cheek exhibits again as much of 
the bloom of health and youth as is usually to be found 
within the tropics. Meanwhile, her husband is diligently 
spreading the truth among the enslaved population around. 
He can gain no access to them on the week-day, beyond the 
boundary of his friend s estate ; but oa the Sabbath a mul 
titude of the poor slaves flock from all the surrounding 



THE MARTZR MISSIO^AET. 57 

country, having heard of the minister who is preaching at 
Belmont; some influenced by curiosity, but many eager to 
hear about the Crucified, and the heaven of joy and love 
which they may gain through His merits, after the unre 
quited toils and wasting hardships of their present unenviable 
lot shall have passed away. The missionary s wife, too, 
devotes her rapidly increasing strength to the instruction of 
these dark children of Africa, dark in mind, as in com 
plexion, with the full sanction of their God-fearing owner, 
who is anxious that his bondmen and bondwomen may share 
with himself the joyous hopes of life and immortality beyond 
the grave. The blessed seed of the kingdom, cast among 
the enslaved children of Ham, has generally found a genial 
and fruitful soil. And there is no exception here. Dark 
eyes glisten with mingled emotions ; and dark faces 
stream with copious tears, as the man of God dwells on the 
story of the cross, and expatiates on God s wondrous love to 
the lowliest and guiltiest of the sinful race, the slave as 
well as the free, the black man as well as the white, all 
equally interested in the atonement which love has provided. 
The melodies of the Methodist poet, sung by clear and 
tuneful voices, now begin to be heard in the cottages around ; 
and earnest supplication, in simple, broken language, goes 
up from many a retreat amid these pleasant vales and moun 
tains, where the voice of prayer was never heard before. The 
power of the word has been felt in not a few weary hearts ; 
and with a ready faith the blessings of salvation have been 
appropriated. In a word, souls have passed from death unto 
life ; so that, on New Year s day, thirty to forty, professing 
faith in the blood of Christ, and experiencing its cleansing 
power, are baptized in the name of the ever-blessed Trinity. 
Thus are laid the foundations of a church destined 
to pass through many trials and triumphs, the master and 
mistress of the property being enrolled among its earliest 
members ; for they also have obtained, through believing, 
"the peace which passeth all understanding." Before the 
missionary returns to his own appointed sphere of labour 
in the capital, after a sojourn of three months in St. Ann s, 



58 KOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

an arrangement is concluded for this new station to be visited 
on one Sabbat H in six weeks, to the great joy of many, who 
hope to have a missionary ere long stationed in their own 
parish. 

Three years pass away. Through the occasional visits of 
the missionaries, and the zealous labours of the Christian pro 
prietor of Belmont, (now become an efficient local preacher,) 
many souls have been brought to God ; societies, more or 
less promising, have been established ; and preaching-houses 
have been opened at several other places in the parish, 
chiefly along the coast. And the time has arrived for 
taking measures in order to the more permanent establish 
ment of the mission at Belmont, by the erection of suitable 
buildings for public worship, and for a missionary s resi 
dence ; so that the growing work of God in this part of the 
island may be placed under immediate pastoral oversight. 
The estate is so held by its present occupant and owner, that 
the concurrence of his children, who are all minors, is neces 
sary to convey an absolute right to any portion of it ; which, 
therefore, cannot be legally done till they have attained 
their majority. In hope that either himself or his wife, if 
not both, may survive that period, or that, at all events, he 
may be able to effect such arrangements as will finally 
secure the property for the object contemplated, a suitable 
piece of land is conveyed to the society at Belmont, not of 
much value to the estate itself, though a most acceptable 
gift to them. This is accompanied by a donation of the 
timber necessary for the buildings ; and, after consider 
able delay, the several erections are commenced. Pecu 
niary difficulties arise, so that years elapse before the 
undertaking is completed. But these difficulties are at 
length surmounted ; and, to the unbounded joy of a mul 
titude of the sable and oppressed denizens of the parish,. 
a commodious sanctuary, and a pleasant house adjoining, 
are made ready to serve the purposes of their erection. 
And there the work of the Lord abundantly prospers. It is 
a centre of Gospel light and influence, with radiations 
sweeping over many miles around. Hundreds of souls are 
there born of God, and set free from the miserable thraldom. 



THE MARTYR MISSIONARY. - r > ( ,> 

of s : n. On the Sabbath morning the whole country is 
enlivened, as numbers of the enslaved peasantry in their 
best attire, and not a few of the free coloured inhabitants, 
wend their way in the direction of Belmont, reminding the 
beholder of the beautiful words of a Hebrew prophet : 
" And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go 
up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of 
Jacob ; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk 
in His paths." (Isaiah ii. 3.) 

For several years this work has gone on without interrup 
tion, though scanned by some with an evil and suspicious- 
eye : the character of Mr. Drew, and his influence in the 
parish, being sufficient to restrain the spirit of persecution,, 
until many of the new converts have become established in 
grace. But there is one hard-hearted man, whose talents,, 
and position as rector, give him great power to work 
mischief. From the beginning this man has watched 
the progress of the Methodist mission with jealous and 
malignant feelings, which only wanted an opportunity for 
development ; and his influence has been covertly exerted to 
arouse among his parishioners a spirit of like hostility.. 
These efforts, entirely at variance with the spirit proper to 
his sacred office, combined with the example of other perse 
cutors, who have caused the death of the Missionary Smith- 
in Demerara, and demolished the Wesleyan chapel in Barba- 
does, have not been without fruit ; and there now exists an 
amount of bitterness and hatred, among the planters of St. 
Ann s parish, well calculated to produce similar results in 
Jamaica, when a favourable opportunity shall arise. The 
first indication of this bad feeling is seen in the refusal of 
the magistrates to license two missionaries appointed to 
labour in the parish ; these functionaries assuming to 
themselves the power (which, according to a subsequent 
decision of the highest legal authorities of the island, they 
had no right to do) of requiring every missionary to take 
out a separate licence for the parish, and of refusing such 
licence at their pleasure. This being assumed in every other 
parish, the missionaries are subjected to most vexatious 



GO ROMANCE OF T1IE MISSION FIELD. 

restrictions. The effect in the present case is to deprive St. 
Ann s, for a while, of a resident missionary. During this 
time one of the brethren, (Mr. Ratcliffe,) who has already 
obtained a licence authorizing him to preach in the parish, 
devotes to it much of his labour, although residing at a 
distance of some forty miles ; until he is enabled so far to 
free himself from other engagements, as to take up his abode 
for a year or two in St. Ann s. Thus the plans of the per 
secutors arc frustrated. But the spirit of intolerance has 
become increasingly rampant ; and, before leaving his fruit 
ful field of toil, this peaceable minister of Jesus Christ, 
and his family, narrowly escape the violence of a gang of 
ruffians instigated to the outrage by the slave-holding rector ! 
Mr. .Ratcliffe, whose name is precious wherever he has 
laboured, is succeeded by a younger minister holding no 
licence from the magistrates of St. Ann s. He does not, 
however, think himself called upon to desist from his sacred 
labour until the arrival of the quarter-sessions, but com 
mences preaching at all the stations, intending to apply to 
the court at its next sitting. In the person of one of the 
parish functionaries, who combines in himself the offices of 
head-constable and master of the workhouse and gaol, (both 
places of punishment,) is exhibited one of the worst types 
of humanity ; a man rendered callous and brutal, to an 
extraordinary degree, by doing the will of the slave-holders 
in punishing their poor unfortunate slaves, until he actually 
feels a savage delight in witnessing and inflicting suffering. 
The payment of a small fee is all that is necessary to secure 
at his hands, and to any extent, the punishment of a slave 
sent for the purpose. In him the rector finds a willing and 
unscrupulous agent for gratifying his own malignity toward 
those who are seeking to meliorate the sad condition of the 
masses in the parish, by diffusing among them the blessed 
light of the Gospel. The constable-gaoler first attempts 
to silence the man of God by threats, but in vain. Then, 
when the missionary applies to the court of quarter-sessions, 
he opposes him there, and represents to the magistrates that 
this Methodist preacher has set the law at nought by 



THE MAETYit MISSIONARY. 61 

preaching without a licence ; although there is, in fact, no 
law rendering it necessary to obtain a licence in any other 
part of the island, when, in compliance with the British 
Toleration Act, the oaths have been taken in one parish, 
which the missionary has done. But the designs of this 
evil-minded man and his employer are baffled by the influ 
ence of the custos, the Hon. Henry Cox, who has 
not come under the unholy influence diffused through 
the parish, and whose knowledge of Mr. Drew, and of the 
labours of the missionaries, enables him more correctly to 
estimate the benefits which they are conferring both upon 
the enslaved people and their owners. The custos succeeds 
in bringing over the other magistrates to his own views ; 
the missionary is allowed to take the oaths ; and, having 
paid somewhat exorbitant fees to the officers of the court, 
he takes his departure with a certificate which recognises his 
right to exercise his ministry throughout the parish of St. 
Ann. 

Defeated in this attempt to break up the religious services 
of the Methodists at Belmont and elsewhere, the constable 
is frequently to be found hovering about the chapel doors, 
abusing and threatening the poor slaves as they enter or 
leave the house of prayer, and reporting their attendance there 
to the overseers of the several estates to which they belong ; 
thus causing them, in some instances, to be cruelly punished 
by their taskmasters. But the malign influence of the 
rector is at work in another direction. Many times the 
legislature of the island has enacted laws with a view to 
suppress the labours of the missionaries among the slaves ; 
but as often have these wicked attempts been neutralized by 
the vigilance of Christian friends in England, and by the 
liberal feeling of the home government. However cun 
ningly constructed, the oppressive enactments have been 
uniformly disallowed by the sovereign in council. But 
again this engine of mischief is set to work, and all the art 
and address of the clever rector are brought to the task of 
so drawing up an act, which is to break up the missions, as 
to insure the approval of the government at home. A law 



62 ROMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

is framed, consisting of nearly a hundred clauses, professedly 
to improve the condition of the slaves, and to secure to 
them various advantages and indulgences. Among these is 
a provision to make slave evidence admissible in certain 
cases, a concession hitherto sternly and indignantly re 
fused by the local legislature. But all this is intended as 
the vehicle for passing into the authority of established 
law (as nurses disguise medicine for children in that which 
is agreeable to the palate) other provisions of a most into 
lerant character, which go to deprive the Negroes of all 
religious rights, provisions which make punishable with 
heavy fine or imprisonment the assembling of slaves between 
sunset and sunrise for religious instruction by any persons, 
not of the Established Church, professing to be teachers of 
religion ; excepting, in most distinct terms, Jews and Roman 
Catholics! while Presbyterians and "licensed ministers" 
are allowed to hold services as late as eight o clock in the 
evening. It is also made a crime for slaves to give any 
instruction to each other ; a clause evidently designed to 
restrain slaves from acting as class-leaders. Moreover, 
it is proposed to punish missionaries who receive contribu 
tions from slaves for any pious or charitable purposes what 
soever. This "new consolidated slave Jaw," as it is called, 
is nothing more or less than a deep plot, the offspring of the 
fertile brain of the rector, to entrap his majesty s govern 
ment into concurrence with a system of persecution, and of 
great cruelty. For, what could be more cruel than to take 
from the sons and daughters of oppression their only solace 
under the iron yoke, and shut them up to all the conse 
quences of ignorance ? 

But the persecutors have " reckoned without their host." 
The gay duke, representing his majesty in this colony, shows 
himself quite ready to endorse and sanction their attempt to 
add bitterness to the lot of the oppressed, under the 
hypocritical pretence of conferring benefits upon them. But, 
to give it permanence, the act must have also the approval of 
the king in council ; and his majesty s ministers are not so 
-easily deceived as the rector of St. Ann s, and his brother 



THE MARTYR MISSIONARY. 63 

conspirators against the rights and liberties of their fellow- 
men, suppose. There is in the Colonial Office one who hrj 
occupied a seat there for many years, as a principal clerk 
under several administrations, a man whose large heart 
warmly sympathizes with the slaves and their persecuted 
instructors, and who is thoroughly awake to all the finesse 
and hypocrisy of colonial legislation. The profession of the 
Jamaica legislature to be concerned about improving the 
condition of the slave goes with him for as much as it is 
worth. It is justly regarded as an index to evil at work. 
He knows them and their proclivities well. At once his 
eagle glance penetrates the real design of this elaborate 
enactment, and all its cruelty and treachery lie open to his 
view : for long experience in colonial affairs has taught him 
how easy it will be for the planters, when once their real 
object in preventing Negro instruction by the missionaries is 
secured by law, to reduce to a dead letter everything that is 
made to wear a kind and indulgent aspect towards the slaves. 
In addition, there is the masterly intellect of Richard 
Watson at the Mission House in London ; and his powerful 
pen lays bare the deformity and wickedness of this piece of 
colonial legislation, in the protest of the Missionary Com 
mittee laid before his majesty s council. In a short time, 
(far shorter than is usually occupied in the disposal of a 
colonial bill,) a despatch arrives in Jamaica, bearing the 
honoured name of Huskisson, which disallows the "new 
consolidated slave law," and embodies such comments as 
prove that its real character, however well disguised, is 
understood and appreciated by the ministers of the crown. 
The covert invasion of that religious liberty to which all 
subjects of the British crown are entitled, the attempt to 
prevent all mutual instruction among the slaves, the pro 
hibition of religious meetings between sunset and sunrise, 
amounting in many cases to a prohibition of religious worship 
altogether, especially in the case of domestic slaves, the invi 
dious distinction set up between Protestant Nonconformists 
and Jews and Roman Catholics, and the attempt to forbid by 
law to the slave what is required of all by New Testament 



ROMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

precept, (namely, the contributing for pious and charitable 
uses,) are pointed out, and commented on, in terms that 
are gall and wormwood to the baffled authors of this nefarious 
plot. And the despatch, so worthy the heart and head of a 
Christian statesman, concludes with an impressive mandate 
to the governor-general, intended to guide him and all his 
successors in that high station, and to prevent the coming 
into operation, even for a short season, of any such act : 
"I cannot too distinctly impress upon you that it is the 
settled purpose of liis majesty s government to sanction no 
colonial law ivhich needlessly infringes on the religious liberty 
of any class of his majesty s subjects ; and you will under 
stand that you are not to assent to any bill imposing any 
restraint of that nature, unless a clause le inserted for 
suspending its operation until his majesty s pleasure shall be 
known" 

But, while the wretched " law " has been slowly travelling 
to Europe and back, (there being no fleet of massive steamers 
as yet traversing the broad Atlantic,) and during the time it 
has been under discussion at the Colonial Office, it has come 
into temporary operation in Jamaica ; and eager advantage 
is taken of it in many parts of the island, but especially in 
St. Ann s, to harass and persecute the religious instructors 
of the slaves. The new " law " began to take effect on the* 
10th of May ; and, before the month expires, Mr. Grimsdall, 
the missionary resident at Belmont, being the second who 
has occupied the new house there, is summoned before the 
magistrates in special session, to answer complaints 
preferred by the constable. It is alleged that he has 
preached in an unlicensed house at Ocho Bios, and has also 
preached to a company of slaves at unlawful hours, that is, 
after sunset. He obeys the summons. To the first charge 
the accused replies, that for about three years the house in 
question has been used as a place of religious worship ; but 
that, to meet the requirements of the new law, he has done 
all that was practicable in the case, having sent in a certi 
ficate to the clerk of the peace, showing that the house is 
intended to be still used as formerly, and conveying an 



THE MARTYR MIBSIONAEY. 65 

application that it should be accordingly registered at the 
court of quarter-sessions. The three magistrates upon the 
bench require that he shall cease to use the house for reli 
gious purposes, until it has been duly licensed by this court. 
He is very well convinced that this is only a scheme to put 
an end to the services in that place altogether. (Herein, as 
it turns out, he is quite right : for, when the quarter-sessions 
arrive, the magistrates assume and exercise the illegal power 
of refusing to "record" the house.) However, as it will 
involve no more than the cessation of the services for a few 
weeks, he submits to this arbitrary stretch of authority, and 
consents to abstain from preaching at Ocho Bios until the court 
of quarter-sessions has been held. In dealing with the 
charge of preaching to slaves at unlawful hours, the accused 
refers to the very clause of the law under which the com 
plaint has been made ; and shows, what is very clear, that 
liis case forms one of the exceptions there mentioned, inas 
much as he is a duly licensed minister, licensed in the 
parish, and therefore entitled, by the new law itself, to 
continue religious services until eight o clock ; beyond which 
hour, even the accuser testified, those exercises were not 
continued. But he has to do with men who do not scruple 
to make the law bend to their own bad purposes and 
prejudices. It was pre-determined that the Methodist 
preacher should go to gaol, or pay a fine of twenty pounds 
at least ; and, refusing to gratify these gentlemen by paying 
down this amount of his own or the Society s money, to gaol 
he is accordingly sent, committed by S. W. Rose, B. W. 
Smith, and David Brydon, occupants, if not ornaments, of 
the bench, for "teaching and preaching to slaves at 
improper and unlawful hours, contrary to the true intent and 
meaning of the law now in force." 

In the custody of the constable, the missionary is led to 
prison, one of the most filthy and noisome of all the 
loathsome prisons of Jamaica. The upper story of the gaol 
is divided into four apartments, two of which are used as the 
parish hospital, the partition walls not rising to the ceiling ; 
but only part of the way, and surmounted with open lattice 



66 BOMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

work ; so that tlie unwholesome effluvia from the hospital 
float freely through all the apartments. One of the other 
two rooms is assigned to the missionary, while the second is 
crowded with prisoners. The four rooms occupy a space of 
thirty-five feet by twenty-five. Underneath, and separated 
only by a single-boarded floor, are cells occupied by three men 
under sentence of death, and by a crowd of prisoners, chiefly 
Negroes, who are awaiting their trial for various offences at 
the quarter-sessions. There is but one window to the 
missionary s cell, and that is so situated as to render the 
place almost intolerable. It is only by the free use of strong 
camphorated spirit, that he can overcome the nausea with 
which he is assailed all through the evening and the night. 
Ten long nights and days he endures this cruel confinement, 
after which he is set at liberty, with health broken, and 
physical energies much exhausted. As it is the blessed 
Sabbath, he bends his footsteps at once to the chapel, not far 
distant ; where, enfeebled as he is, he conducts both the 
public services of the day, rejoicing, with his afflicted, 
sympathizing flock, in the grace by which he has been 
sustained, while suffering for his Master s sake. On the 
Monday he reaches his residence at Belmont. Delightful is 
the change from that dreary prison to a sweet mountain 
home ; aad precious are the fresh and fragrant breezes which 
greet him there, where many sable hundreds testify by their 
tears the deepest condolence with their beloved minister, and 
with extravagant demonstrations welcome his return to his 
family and to them. 

Having consented to abstain from preaching in the house 
at Ocho Bios until the quarter-sessions shall afford him. th 
opportunity of having the place recorded for the purpose, he 
refrains from conducting any public service there, willing to 
conciliate prejudice by submitting for a season to an illegal 
restriction. At the proper time he presents himself before 
the magistrates ; when the custos, who presides at the 
sessions, and another of the magistrates, express themselves 
in favour of registering the house at Ocho Eios, and granting 
the certificate. But the adverse influence of the rector has 



THE MARTYR MISSIONARY. 67 

been at work, and there is a large assemblage of magistrates 
who have been drawn to join the ranks of the persecutors, 
and have come together for the sake of putting down 
the Methodist preachers. The custos is outvoted, and the 
court decides upon refusing to grant any certificate. This 
amounts to a decision, that the services at Ocho Rios, which 
have continued for some years, shall be brought to a close, 
and the people in that neighbourhood deprived of sacred 
ordinances. The missionary is a man of meek and humble 
spirit, but also of courage. He is satisfied that these men 
have no legal authority for what they do ; and, having shown 
his respect for what they choose to regard as law, and 
satisfied the Toleration Act, he concludes that he has done all 
that Christian duty and a good conscience require of him in 
the matter. And now, after much prayer, he resolves to 
obey God rather than men, and to refuse submission to a 
cruel intolerance that would leave dark multitudes around 
him to perish in their ignorance and sin. Accordingly he 
resumes the usual services all through the circuit, commend 
ing himself and his cause to God, and calmly awaiting the 
result ; prepared to bring to a legal test, if need be, the 
authority assumed by the magistrates of St. Ann s. For 
some weeks he is suffered to go on unmolested, he and his 
brethren earnestly and confidently looking forward to the 
time when his majesty s disallowance of the persecuting law 
now in operation shall be signified to the governor. The rector 
and the magistrates also have some fearful anticipations of a 
similar kind, having probably received through the agent in 
London some intimation of the doom which is impending, at 
the Colonial Office, over this offspring of their intolerance ; 
and, while the unrighteous law is still operative, they resolve 
to strike another blow. One day, during service at Oeho 
Bios, the missionary and congregation see the repulsive 

countenance of peering into the chapel and around it. 

This is justly regarded as an omen of evil ; for the presence 
of that man, like some bird of prey, augurs nothing that is 
good. No one therefore is surprised that on the 
following day the missionary finds himself again in the 

f 2 



68 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION MELD. 

custody of this spy, to be carried before the magistrates on 
the old charge of preaching to slaves in an unlicensed house ; 
with the additional complaint of having married one slave to 
(mother without consent of the owner. The magistrates are, 
for the most part, as before, pliant and illiterate tools of the 
slave-holding rector. In vain the prisoner pleads that he 
has done all the law requires ; and that, the house being 
certified, it is the fault of the magistrates themselves that it 
is not recorded ; they having exercised an illegal power in 
refusing his application. In vain he pleads that he has 
violated no law by marrying the slave to the object of her 
choice, since none exists in the colony referring to marriage 
at all. (He might have added, that, until the mission 
aries introduced it, marriage was little known among any 
class of the people, and among the slaves and coloured people 
quite unknown.) As in the former case, the magistrates have 
come together to do only what they and their friend the 
rector had already resolved upon; and the persecuted 
servant of Christ is again handed over to ruffianly keeping, 
and taken back to the same unwholesome cell with which he is 
already familiar. 

The place is indescribably odious, and produces loathing, 
which he seeks to counteract, as before, by the use of 
camphorated spirit, and other similar means. This tim--! he 
is committed for trial at the sessions, and not for a 
definite term of imprisonment. Bail is, therefore, sought 
and tendered for his appearance before the court ; but diffi 
culties are thrown in the way, and it is not until after the 
lapse of several days that the bail is accepted, and the suffering 
prisoner set at liberty. It is, alas ! too late to save his life. 
He has never fully recovered from the effects of his former 
imprisonment. The deadly poison, inhaled during ten days 
close confinement, is still lurking in his veins, corrupting 
the vital fluid, and weakening the citadel of life ; and now, 
every hour that he breathes that polluted atmosphere, the 
subtle venom diffused through his system is quickened into 
activity, his strength is rapidly diminishing, and he is 
b?ing hurried to the grave. It is, doubtless, the report 



THE MARTY E- MISSIONARY. 69 

of the prisoner s failing health, made by the gaoler, 
that induces the magistrates to accept the proffered bail. 
Had he remained within those prison walls a day or two 
longer, he would scarcely have survived to pass through the 
gates. As it is, more serious effects than those of many 
years of wasting toil have been produced by a few days 
imprisonment. Faint and exhausted, and almost dying, he 
is borne back to his mountain home, to leave it no more, till 
he ascends to that better home above, " the palace of angels 
and God." The cool and balmy air of the uplands revives 
him a little, and for a short time he seems likely to rally ; 
but the seeds of fatal disease are within him, and the king 
of terrors has been permitted to mark him as his prey. The 
poison which has undermined all the powers of life is 
developed in a lingering fever, such as no medical skill can 
check ; and it soon becomes evident to his weeping young 
wife that she must shortly be a widow, and her infant 
fatherless. Friends surround the bed of death, and do all 
that love can dictate for the relief of the sufferer. At 
intervals, when delirium ceases, he speaks sweetly of the all- 
sufficiency of Divine grace, and the preciousness of the 
sprinkled blood; until, on the fifteenth day, waving his 
hand in triumph, and with a countenance all radiant, this 
witness for his Lord, while yet in the prime of youth 
ful manhood, passes to the blessed spirit-land, to be 
numbered among those glorified ones who have resisted 
unto blood, and counted not their lives dear unto them 
selves, so that they might finish their course with joy. 
On the following day, amid the tears and lamentations of 
white and black, bond and free, the deserted clay is laid in 
that lowly grave, which afterwards, discoloured by time, met 
the eye of the traveller amid the ruins of the mission 
station at Belmont. 

These things might not have been, had it pleased unerring 
Providence to spare the life of the Christian owner of these 
broad lands. But that good man has been sleeping in his 
family vault nearly a year ; and his ransomed spirit is enjoy 
ing an endless rest. Methodism found him " floating upon 



70 EOMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

a sea of scepticism," believing nothing, fearing everything, 
and proving the bitter truth of those words of heavenly 
wisdom, though he knew them not, " The wicked are like the 
troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire 
and dirt." The first sermon he heard from a missionary s 
lips, (on John iii. 3,) before he sought the interview related 
in the foregoing pages, made a deep impression on his heart. 
Through God s blessing upon it, that discourse let in a 
flood of light, altogether new, on his bewildered mind. Ifc 
reached his conscience, and awakened it to an activity 
long unknown. It produced what he had never felt or 
imagined before, 

" The godly fear, the pleasing smart, 
The meltings of a broken heart." 

And soon his doubts were solved, and all the dark clouds of 
scepticism dispersed, when he came, a self- condemned sinner, 
to Jesus, and by simple faith obtained " redemption through 
His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." At once he took 
active part in the Lord s service. Defying reproach and 
opposition, he opened the way for the establishment of a 
mission station in the parish where he lived ; rejoiced over 
the conversion of his wife and daughter, and the Christian 
instruction of his slaves ; became himself a devoted class- 
leader and local preacher ; gave land and timber for mission 
buildings on his own estate, and also at St. Ann s Bay ; and 
boldly vindicated the truth which had been to him "the 
power of God unto salvation," both in the pulpit and with 
the pen,* as well as by the silent, powerful eloquence of a 
blameless, benevolent, and holy life. How inscrutable is the 
Providence which took away such a man at such a time ! 
Had his life been prolonged, he would have stood by the per- 

* Mr. Drew was the author of a well- written work, in two octavo 
volumes, entitled, " Principles of Self-Knowledge ; or an Attempt to 
demonstrate the Truth of Christianity, and the Efficacy of Experi 
mental Religion, against the Cavils of the Infidel, and the Objections 
of the Formalist." These volumes passed through the press under 
the supervision of the well-known Samuel Drew, A.M. ; but their 
author did not live to see them in print. 



THE MABTYB MISSIONARY. 71 

secuted missionary ; and there is little doubt that his influence 
in the parish, as a magistrate greatly respected, added to his 
eminent legal ability, would have been more than a match 
for the cunning of the rector and all his associates. He had 
been failing in vigour for some time ; but the wicked outrage 
by which it was attempted to destroy the lives of Mr, 
Radcliffe and his family at St. Ann s Bay, by means of a gang of 
ruffians, had called forth all Mr. Drew s energies to 
trace and bring to punishment the lawless band, some of 
whom were well known. Having, in his capacity of 
magistrate, set matters in train for a thorough investiga 
tion, he returned home : but it was to die ; his exertions 
having probably exceeded what his sinking health could 
endure. Before the inquiry could be pushed to any important 
result, his little remaining strength finally gave way : and> 
to the grief of the missionaries, and the still deeper 
distress of his excellent wife and family, he passed 
away in blessed triumph to the church before the throne. 
Just before, he had put forth literally a dying eifort in 
singing the beautiful words, 

" I know that my Kedeemer lives, 

And ever prays for me ; 
A token of His love He gives, 
A pledge of liberty." 

Among other utterances on his death-bed, he said to one 
of the missionaries, who was expressing his regret that one 
so useful should be taken away at such a crisis, " I am but a 
poor worm ; there is no room for boasting. I cannot look to 
anything that I have done. The whole science of divinity is 
compressed into a very narrow compass : 

" I the chief of sinners am, 
But Jesus died for me ! " 

Mr. Drew has left behind him a family of children, and a 
widow like-minded with himself, who enters fully into all the 
plans of large-hearted benevolence which he formed, and 
partly executed. A lady of energetic and well-cultivated 
mind, she carries on, with excellent results, the manage- 



72 ROMANCE OP THE MISSION IELD. 

ment of the estate. But how dark and inexplicable are 
God s ways ! Only one short year has elapsed since the 
martyred Grimsdall was laid in his " narrow cell," two 
years since her husband ascended to the skies, when, after 
a brief illness, this excellent lady is summoned to rejoin her 
beloved companion in the better land, and an orphan family 
is left to deplore an irreparable loss. When this new afflic 
tion occurs, persecution is still raging, and the rector and 
magistrates, stung almost to madness by the disallowance 
of their malevolent " slave law," are imprisoning missionaries, 
and stretching their authority beyond all bounds, in defiance 
alike of justice and of law. The painful bereavement, mean 
while, brings a still darker cloud over the prospects of the 
mission, and gives the rector fresh opportunities of pursuing 
his designs. The estate and affairs of Belmont (the 
children being mostly young) fall into the hands of an 
executor or trustee who has no sympathy with the religious 
views of Mr. Drew. Had the excellent widow s life been 
prolonged until all her children attained their majority, (the 
thing too fondly anticipated,) there is little doubt that they 
would have become parties to the deed of conveyance required 
for finally securing the land on which the mission premises 
were erected, both at Belmont and St. Ann s Bay. But, 
unhappily, an opportunity is now presented for reclaiming 
the land, and driving the " sectarians " from the parish : 
a chance which may not be allowed to pass away 
unimproved. The land is of little intrinsic value ; and there 
would be no unwillingness to indemnify the estate held on 
trust for the children s benefit, by giving compensation to 
the largest amount at which it could be fairly appraised. 
But the trustee is fully under the influence of the rector, 
who will be satisfied with nothing less than wresting the 
property out of the hands of the Methodists. The premises 
have now become valuable : for many hundreds of pounds, 
contributed partly by the poor slaves, from what their small 
provision grounds have yielded, but chiefly by the Society in 
London, have been expended in erecting those neat and 
commodious buildings chapel, dwelling, &c. which adorn 



THE MAETTR MISSIONARY. 73 

the station. But what cares that man (minister of a just 
and holy religion though he professes to be) for the 
unrighteousness of laying violent hands on the property of 
others, to which the estate could have no moral claim ? If 
the religious services there instituted for the good of the 
Negroes can be broken up, he will rejoice as one that findeth 
great spoil. 

The demand to vacate and give up the mission property, 
chapels, residence and all, both at Belmont and St. Ann s 
Bay, is in due course made. Before this is complied with, 
the best legal advice to be had in the island is taken, and 
the conclusion is reached, that it is most advisable, on the 
whole, not to risk in costs of uncertain litigation money 
which may afford material help in providing other places of 
worship. To the very deep sorrow of hundreds, the beauti 
ful station at Belmont, and the premises at St. Ann s Bay, 
are ultimately abandoned. 

But the chief designs of the persecutors are not accom 
plished, nor is the work of the Lord entirely frustrated. 
The poor people, hundreds of whom were "born for glory " 
on that spot, having there heard the joyful sound of that 
truth, which makes men spiritually free, weep and mourn 
over the loss of their pleasant sanctuary, and of some of 
the means of gracs : but the mission is not broken up, as 
its enemies confidently expected. The great Head of the 
Church raises up instruments suited to the accomplishment 
of His own purposes. So it is in this case. The martyred 
Grimsdall has been succeeded by a missionary not 
easily daunted or discouraged. With quiet yet earnest 
resolution, ready to endure or to do anything the occasion 
may require, he confronts the opposers, and addresses him 
self to the emergency of this case, cheering the hearts 
of the suffering people, not only to the point of patient 
endurance, but of joyful hope. After some difficulty he 
succeeds in obtaining for hire a house (or, rather, what 
looks very much like the half of a house which has been cut 
in two) called " Blackheath," within two or three miles of 
Belmont. It is sufficient for the accommodation of his 



74 EOMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

own family, but nob to receive the large congregation wont 
to assemble in the chapel. In the adjacent pasture, however, 
there are majestic trees, whose wide-?preading branches 
afford a delightful protection from the scorching sun-rays.. 
And here, Sabbath after Sabbath, the people assemble, bond 
and free ; not discouraged, though a heavy shower, such as 
Europeans seldom witness, sometimes sends them dripping 
to their homes. The surrounding hills echo with their- 
songs of praise ; and, sitting all around the minuter upon 
the grass, they listen with moist and eager eyes to the truth 
that saves. The novelty of this open field worship, and 
the sympathy felt with the congregation driven from its 
place of worship, bring additional numbers from all 
the country round to attend these pleasant services ; and 
the power of Jehovah is there to slay and to save. Beneath 
the thick branches of those fine cedars, many hearts are 
pierced with conviction of sin, and not a few are brought 
into the glorious liberty of the children of God. It is a 
re-animating scene ; one of great rural beauty, and of more 
than earthly grandeur ; a scene on which seraphs might 
hover with ecstatic joy. There is a congregation largely 
made up of Negro slaves, in clean but humble apparel, 
bowing before God, and learning the way to heaven. Words 
cannot describe the eager attention with which they listen, 
as the missionary expatiates, with thrilling eloquence, on the 
words, " What meanest thou, sleeper ? Arise, call upon- 
thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we 
perish not." (Jonah i. 6.) It is no fancy sketch. These 
eyes beheld it ; and these ears listened there to a much- 
loved friend who discoursed on the text just cited, while 
"thoughts that breathe, and words that burn," fell from 
lips now hushed in the silence of the grave. 

In process of time, the ejected congregation obtain, 
through the liberality of English friends, the gift of a large 
tent, which is erected there in the pasture, affording shelter 
to as many as its dimensions will accommodate, when the 
clouds drop their fatness upon the earth. The persecutors. 



THE MA11TYB MISSIONARY. 75 

have the mortification of seeing that the work they hate 
goes on more prosperously than ever. It becomes necessary 
to divide the congregation, for they gather in crowds from 
places miles distant on either side. Divine Providence opens 
the way. Land is offered for sale in favourable localities. Two 
beautiful and convenient sites are procured, just in the 
midst of the people, some six or seven miles apart. It is no 
discouragement that for many months the divided congre 
gation has to worship one part in the field, the other part 
in the forest, canopied by giant trees, until the arrangements 
for building are completed. At length, through the liberal 
contributions of the people on the spot, and of friends of 
missions in England, two neat, commodious, and substantial 
houses of prayer are reared, capable of containing at least 
three times as many as the desecrated sanctuary at Belmont. 
Thus God, in His boundless wisdom, evolves good out of 
the evil, and makes the wrath of man to praise Him. Near 
the larger of these two mountain sanctuaries stands the 
missionary s comfortable residence. The principal road 
through the island gracefully winds round the foot of the 
hill, passing between the mission house and chapel ; while 
the rural station, and the numerous cottages of the 
emancipated peasantry thickly studding the neighbour 
hood all around, add new and lively features to a most 
beautiful landscape. 

But Belmont has gone to ruin. After the change of 
management, it soon ceased to be the prosperous, productive 
estate it had been. Its rich herds of cattle no longer yielded 
any remunerative return ; the pasture walls became dilapi 
dated, and were suffered to remain without repair ; and the 
fine stone buildings fell into decay. But God has 
taken care of the orphan children. Of the chapel, in 
the rearing of which so many hearts were gladdened, there 
are now only fragments. How different it was, when 
hallowed as the place where Jehovah Jesus was worshipped 1 
How different it might have been still ! Such are the 
thoughts of the missionary visitor, as, awaking from ohe> 



76 BOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

long reverie in which he has been indulging, he observes 
that the shades of evening are gathering darkly around him. 
Mounting his horse, and casting one more look upon the 
ruin, he turns away with saddened, chastened, grateful 
feeling, and bids a last farewell to THE GRAVE or THE 

MAUTYRED MISSJ.ONABT. 



IV. 

SUFFERING FOB THE TRUTH. 

LET us be patient ! These severe afflictions 

Not from the ground arise, 
But oftentimes celestial benedictions 

Assume this dark disguise. 
We see but dimly through the mists and vapours ; 

Amid these earthly damps 
What seem to us but sad funereal tapers 

May be heaven s distant lamps. 

LONGFELLOW. 

fHE martyred missionary sleeps in his early grave, cut 
off in the prime of youth and in the morning of his 
usefulness ; as truly murdered as if the deadly chalice 
had been actually presented to his lips, and he compelled to 
drink its contents. The only difference is, that the poison 
which drank up his young life was infused into his veins 
through the lungs, and not through the ordinary medium. 
And little do they reck, those unjust and cruel men who 
have perpetrated this deed of great wrong, that the life of 
a man of God has been abruptly cut short by their pro 
ceedings ; that his young wife has been plunged in the 
bitter sorrows of early widowhood ; or that his infant child 
has been prematurely deprived of a father s watchful care. 
Urged on by the worldly, unfaithful minister with whom 
the parish is cursed as its rector, the persecuting magistrates, 
as ignorant of the laws they are sworn faithfully to administer, 
as they are indifferent to the requirements of justice and 
religion, show themselves ready for any evil work ; and are 
prepared to deal with others, whom in contempt and scorn 
they designate " sectarian missionaries," as they have dealt 
with him who now, removed beyond the reach of their malig- 



78 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

nity, is quietly resting in his solitary tomb, in that green 
pleasant vale amongst the lofty mountains of St. Ann s. 

The bereaved churches are not long left without pastoral 
oversight. There are not wanting those who, baptized for 
the dead, are ready to enter into the labours of the martyr 
passed within the veil ; and to partake of his sufferings, if 
need be, " not counting their lives dear unto themselves, so 
that they may finish their course with joy, and the ministry 
which they have received of the Lord Jesus." 

The missionary upon whom it devolves to take the placs 
of the fallen standard-bearer of the cross, and to confront the 
embittered enemies who have hurried him to the grave, is a 
man of more robust physical constitution than his predecessor. 
He is not of large stature, of powerful muscular development ; 
but possesses a small, compact, well-knit, and wiry frame, well 
adapted to resist the fierce attacks of tropical disease, and to 
endure a large amount of toil and hardship, under the wasting 
influences of the torrid zone. He is also otherwise well suited 
to fill the post of danger and honour for which he has been 
selected ; inasmuch as he is one 

"Bold to take up, firm to sustain, 

The consecrated cross." 

Mentally and morally he possesses those qualities which, 
elevated and sustained by the grace of God, and the hallowing 
and ennobling influences of His truth, prepare a man to 

" Defy the tyrant s steel, the bigot s rage," 

and enter the arena to win the martyr s crown. Fearless, 
self-possessed, clear-sighted, of indomitable firmness and 
resolution, and possessed of a strong sense of his rights as a 
British subject and a Christian minister, Isaac Whitehouse 
is just the man to confront boldly the ignorant persecutors 
who disgraced the St. Ann s magistracy, and their intolerant, 
but not ignorant, prompter and adviser, the rector. He is the 
right man to vindicate the cause of an oppressed and persecuted 
.people against the efforts now being made to trample their 
religious liberties in the dust. He possesses ordination 
papers, showing that he is a duly accredited missionary of 
the Wesleyan body : and he is able to produce certificates 






SUFFEBING- FOIL THE TE.UTII. 79 

-that he has taken the oaths and subscribed the declarations 
required by the toleration law in force in Great Britain. 
In addition to this, he holds a certificate of having sub 
scribed the oaths and declarations in one of the neighbouring 
parishes since he commenced his labours in the colony ; and 
being well aware that no law exists either in England or in 
the island giving the magistrates any authority to 
interfere with him, or to prevent his labours among the 
neglected slaves and coloured free people, he is prepared to 
resist their assumption of unlawful power, and bring it, if 
need be, to a legal test. 

There is, in fact, no colonial statute existing on the subject 
in Jamaica. For about thirty years the legislature has been 
making attempts to place a law upon the statute book that 
shall give to the slave-oppressing magistrates the right of 
controlling and hindering the labours of missionaries : but 
hitherto without success. Concealing their real purposes 
under specious disguises, they have endeavoured, with a zeal 
and perseverance that would have done them honour if exerted 
in a good cause, to give to intolerance the authority and force 
of statute law. But in vain. Their so called " consolidated 
slave laws," designed to cover some scheme of persecution, 
under pretence of ameliorating the condition of the enslaved, 
have been well understood, and their true purposes appre 
hended, at the Colonial Office in London, and they have been 
uniformly disallowed. The last of these abortive attempts 
to legalize oppression has, only a few weeks since, been 
signally defeated in the condemnation, by the king In 
council, of a new " consolidated slave law;" and in the 
colonial minister s despatch, announcing this decision, 
it is declared that the ministers of the crown are deter 
mined to secure to all his majesty s subjects in Jamaica, 
the slave as well as the free man, the full enjoyment of 
their religious rights and liberties. 

The foremost in vilifying the colonial minister and the 
home government for the disallowance of this persecuting 
enactment, and the plain-spoken despatch which announced 
its fate, is the slave-holding rector of St. Ann s. His 



80 BOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

baffled malignity finds utterance for its ravings through the 
columns of a degraded press, in terms which leave no 
doubt as to the real paternity of the exploded plot, 
designed to rob the coloured population of the island, espe 
cially the poor slaves, of the hope of life and immortality, 
by cutting them off from all opportunity of hearing the 
Gospel whereby alone they can be saved. 

The newly appointed missionary enters upon his duties, in 
expectation of being opposed by the persecuting faction domi 
nant in that part of the country, notwithstanding that they 
have been disappointed of the help upon which they depended 
for destroying root and branch the wide-spreading influence 
of Methodism in the parish, through the action of the Colonial 
Office in reference to the new " consolidated slave law." Nor 
is the expectation unfounded. 

Scarcely a month has elapsed since he took up his abode 
amongst the people of his charge, when the missionary is 
summoned to appear before a special court of magistrates, 
to answer for the alleged crime of having preached in 
the parish before obtaining a licence from the local 
authorities. The accused minister desires, with all due 
respect, to be informed what law he has violated ; because 
he is not aware that there is any statute in existence which 
he has infringed. As there is no colonial enactment relating 
to the subject, excepting those which from time to time 
have been disallowed by the king in council, and are 
therefore defunct, he is told, in answer to his inquiry, that 
he has acted contrary to the law of England. British law, 
they allege, requires ministers of religion to take out a 
licence in every parish or county in which they may wish to 
preach, before they can legally conduct religious services :. 
and this law likewise applies to Jamaica. 

The missionary respectfully submits to their worships that 
they are mistaken as to the requirements of the toleration- 
laws of England, and the practice observed there. Having 
once subscribed the oaths, and made the declarations provided 
for in those laws, Nonconformist ministers preach without let 
or hindrance in any county or parish in the land. On 



SUFFERING FOE THE TRUTH. 81 

hearing this, one of the magistrates on the bench breaks out 
into a paroxysm of uncontrollable rage, and says, "Gentlemen^ 
you see what this Methodism is. I would rather lose my 
commission as a magistrate, than allow that man to preach 
without a licence, or let him receive one at all." 

The custos, who is the presiding magistrate, here inter 
poses; and, being a man of more good sense and right 
feeling than most of his associates, inquires of the accused 
missionary if he is willing to take the oaths prescribed 
by the Toleration Act. " Certainly, your honour," he 
replies. " I have no objection whatever to take the oaths, 
if the bench desires it." The clerk is then directed to 
administer the oaths in the usual form. This is done, and 
a certificate made out. But on looking it over, the 
missionary discovers that certain injurious restrictions, 
foreign to the scope and design of the Act, have been 
inserted ; the obvious intention of which is to limit the 
performance of religious services to certain places in the 
parish, and exclude him from all others. 

Resolved not to sacrifice his own religious liberties or the 
rights of the people entrusted to his charge, he declines to- 
receive the certificate in such a form. He then respectfully 
informs the bench that, having done all that the law 
requires, and all that they have any authority to impose, 
in subscribing the oaths and declarations when called upon 
by the magistrates to do so, he shall disregard the illegal 
restrictions under which they have sought to place him, and 
exercise his right to preach the Gospel wherever he may feel 
it to be his duty to go. Without further communication with 
the bench he then retires from the court. 

A few months elapse, and the missionary is quietly 
prosecuting his labours, when he is apprehended on the 
authority of a bench warrant, issued by the court of 
quarter-sessions, on the charge of preaching and teaching 
in the parish without a licence. Brought before three 
of the parochial magistrates, he is required to give 
security for his appearance at the next court of quarter- 

G 



82 KUMANCE OE THE MISSION FIELD. 

sessions ; then and there to answer to the charge. Having 
given the bail required, he inquires, " Is it understood that I 
am at liberty to pursue my ministerial duties without inter 
ruption in the mean while ? " " No ; you cannot be allowed 
to preach," is the reply; "for the court made an order 
yesterday prohibiting your preaching for three months." 
"But with all due respect," the missionary observes, "the 
court has no authority whatever for making any such order. 
Nor am I bound to submit to it. It is a gross violation of 
the law, and a most arbitrary infringement of my rights as 
a duly qualified minister of the Gospel and a subject of the 
British crown." One of the magistrates, in a haughty and 
scornful tone, and looking with anything but complacency 
upon the persecuted minister, who stands up so nobly for 
right and law, observes, " The decision of the court is law ; 
and if you act contrary thereto, you must abide the conse 
quences." 

Knowing that the duty of magistrates, as such, is not 
to make laws, but to administer those enacted by com 
petent authority, the missionary is not at all convinced 
by this magisterial dictum that he is under any obligation 
to desist from his labours. He intimates to the magistrates 
that he intends to follow what appears to him to be the path 
of duty ; and then takes his departure. 

About a month after this appearance before the paro 
chial authorities the missionary, accompanied by his wife, 
is proceeding, one Saturday afternoon, from Belmont to 
St. Ann s Bay, to attend to his ministerial duties on the 
coast upon the following day. He has gone but a short dis 
tance when he is met by Drake, the head constable of the 
parish, one of the most envenomed of the persecutors, and 
a ready tool of cruelty and wickedness. In the coarse, 
ruffianly style natural to him, he addresses the mis 
sionary, after having stopped the horse and vehicle, thus : 

" I have a warrant for your apprehension on a charge of 
preaching without a licence. * Neither surprised nor inti 
midated, Mr. Whitehouse quietly replies, " I am now on my 



SUFPEEING TOE THE TBUTH. 83 

way to St. Anil s Bay, and shall not attempt to conceal 
myself there." 

After a few more words have passed, the constable turns 
his horse round, and rides on in front of his prisoner s gig. 
Proceeding in this way two or three miles, they arrive 
at a place called "The Thickets," the residence of Mr. 
Rose, one of the magistrates who took a very prominent 
part in persecuting the missionary Grimsdall to an un 
timely death. Stopping opposite the gate, and addressing 
his prisoner, Drake says, " I am directed to take you 
before the nearest magistrate ; and there is one waiting 
for you here." The missionary makes no objection, but 
descends from his seat, and follows his conductor into the 
house, leaving his wife in the vehicle, by the side of the 
road. Here they have to wait a considerable time, as the 
master of the house is not at home. At length the great 
man makes his appearance on horseback, and, dismounting-, 
enters the house, without the slightest show of courtesy to 
the missionary, or to his wife, whom he passed outside the 
gate, sitting with the reins in her hand. 

It is evident the prisoner was expected by this gentleman. 
He addresses himself at once to the business in hand, mak 
ing no inquiry, and offering no remark, except, " I must do 
my duty." This duty is to make out a commitment, author 
izing the prisoner to be conveyed to the gaol of St. Ann s 
Bay, and is very speedily accomplished. The missionary, 
at this juncture, steps forward, and, addressing himself to 
the magistrate, says, " Sir, I should regard it as a favour to 
be bound in chains in the St. Ann s market-place, rather than 
be consigned to the filthy cell in which my predecessor was 
confined. It is well known that Mr. GrimsdaH s death was 
caused by his confinement there." The only reply this 
remark elicits from the pompous Creole is, " The magistrates 
of St. Ann s are determined to do their duty. They do not 
care what the public may say about them. Whoever may 
come here, with their preaching and teaching, shall be 
treated in the same manner." The lordly gentleman then 

G 2 



S4i ROMANCE OF THE MISSION EIELD. 

turns upon his heel, and walks away ; and Mr. Whitehouse, in 
the custody of Drake, is conducted to the gaol of St. Ann s 
Bay, and immediately locked up in the same loathsome cell 
in which his predecessor, but a few weeks ago, found his 
death. 

The cell chosen for the occupation of this servant of 
Christ is found to he tenanted hy an insane black 
woman, whom the gaoler directs to be removed to some 
other apartment. This being done, the missionary is imme 
diately put in possession. It is now about eight o clock at 
night. The place is indescribably filthy, and the stench 
unendurable. There is no bed in the room j no sleeping 
accommodation of any kind ; and if rest be taken at all, it 
must be upon the floor. " The time has come for locking 
up : " so the prisoner is informed. But before this is done 
he entreats the gaoler that the floor of the cell may at least 
be swept ; and if no bed or other accommodation of the 
kind is to be provided, that a few benches may be allowed to 
be brought from the chapel, situated at no great distance, 
so that he may be able to take some repose, without being 
compelled to lie down upon that filth-covered floor. After 
some demur this is assented to. 

The news of the missionary s arrest and imprisonment has 
spread among the people; and there is no lack of S} r mpa- 
thizing friends about the prison, or inside it, so far as they 
are permitted to enter the undesirable abode. A few of 
these address themselves to the task of scraping the thick 
layer of filth from the floor, and sweeping out the cell. 
Others hasten to the chapel, and bring from thence 
several of the benches ; and some bring a mattress to spread 
upon them. Several have procured vinegar and camphorated 
spirit, and employ themselves busily in sprinkling these 
liquids plentifully upon the walls and the floor. Thus 
the loving people have made the horrible place as agreeable 
as is practicable, before they leave their persecuted minister 
to get what repose he can. 

It is but little that he can get. The sea breeze has sub- 



SUFFERING FOR THE TRUTH. 85 

sided, so that there is little or no movement in the atmo 
sphere ; and the thick, stagnant air of the prison, laden 
heavily with foul odours, is sickening, and almost suffo 
cating. The gaol is crowded. There are sick people in the 
hospital, which is separated from the missionary s cell only 
by a wooden partition, surmounted by open lattice work. 
The groans of the sick, and especially of one sick prisoner 
under sentence of death, the clanking of the irons with 
which some refractory prisoners are laden, and the intense 
stifling heat, put sleep altogether out of the question. Like 
his predecessor the imprisoned missionary has, all through 
the night, to keep a handkerchief saturated with camphor 
ated spirit continually applied to his nostrils, to relieve the 
overpowering nausea he feels. No wonder that close con 
finement, for ten days and nights, in this loathsome den, 
so broke down the health and strength of the martyred 
Grimsdall, that a few days additional confinement sent him 
to the grave ! And it is not surprising that cases often occur 
in which slaves, who, in addition to the other adjuncts of 
this fearful place, are subjected to the brutal floggings 
which the man Drake has supreme pleasure in inflicting, 
pass outside the walls only in coarse deal coffins, or go 
home, mangled and mutilated, to die. 

The Sabbath dawns, and the deputy marshal, who is dis 
posed to show such kindness to his prisoner as he is per 
mitted, waits upon him to request him not to preach, or 
hold any religious service with the prisoners, or with the 
friends allowed to visit him, because the magistrates 
have given very particular directions on the subject, 
and he would not like to be compelled to close the prison 
gates against those friends who might wish to obtain access 
to their minister s cell. The missionary replies that, having 
received such a request from him, he will not involve him in 
trouble with the magistrates, by attempting to preach 
within the gaol ; but he cannot allow any authority to pre 
vent him offering up prayer to God. 

The hour for Divine service has arrived, and an immense 
number of people, both slaves and free, from all the neigh- 



86 ROMANCE OP THE MISSION PIELD. 

bourhood around, moved by the news of this fresh attempt 
at persecution, crowd into the little town, and assemble in 
and around the chapel. Drake, always forward in eveiy 
evil work, presents himself, and orders the congregation to 
disperse. He is confronted by a Mr. Watkis, a respectable, 
well-educated man of colour, a class-leader and local preacher. 
Mr. Watkis points out to Drake that he is taking upon 
himself an authority he has no right to exercise, and tells 
him, " The people in the exercise of their rights as British 
subjects have assembled here to worship God. When they 
have sung a hymn together, and offered prayer to the 
Almighty, they will separate, and not before." The perse 
cutor retires without having accomplished his purpose of 
breaking up the assembly. When the short service is ended 
in the chapel, hundreds of the people flock to the gaol ; and 
would gladly get inside to express their sympathy with their 
suffering minister. But, during the morning, the magis 
trates have sent to prohibit their admission ; and it is with 
some difficulty that the missionary s own servant can obtain 
entrance to bring food to his master. No provision what 
ever for supplying him with food is made within the 
gaol. 

Intelligence of this new instance of persecution spreads 
rapidly, and the loving sympathies of thousands, all over the 
island, are stirred up in favour of the incarcerated mission 
ary. Many earnest prayers go up to heaven on his behalf. 
The strong feeling, awakened and called forth by the conduct 
of these St. Ann s magistrates, in persecuting Mr. Grimsdall 
to his death, has not yet had time fully to subside. And now 
that another of the Lord s servants has been thrust into the 
same unwholesome cell, to be dealt with in a similar way, 
for no other offence than preaching the truth to perishing 
men, a powerful sensation is created, which extends far 
beyond the pale of the Methodist churches. 

But none feel a more lively sympathy with the prisoner 
for righteousness sake, than his own missionary brethren, 
stationed in different parts of the island. One of these, 
from a distant station, the Eev. Joseph Orton, of Montego 



FOR THE TBUTH. 87 

Bay, immediately hastens to comfort the imprisoned pastor 
and his afflicted charge, by his presence among them. On 
the usual evening for public service in the chapel, the 
visitor undertakes to deliver an address to the people, who 
assemble together as they are wont to do; he having 
repeatedly preached in the same place without any 
interruption. 

But the object of the persecuting faction in St. Ann s is 
to put an end to all religious services, by which the slaves 
are likely to receive instruction. This does not apply to 
the parish church : for there is little danger of any of the 
Negroes being too much enlightened there. Consequently, 
soon after daybreak on the following morning, the evil- 
omened visage of Drake, the head constable, shows itself 
at the lodgings occupied by the stranger missionary; 
whom he informs, that he has a warrant to apprehend him 
for unlawful preaching, granted by the magistrates on his, 
Drake s, information ; he having been present at the cha 
pel the preceding evening. Mr. Orton is then taken into 
custody by this ready tool of wickedness, and at eleven 
o clock the same day is placed before two of the magis 
trates, S. W. Kose and R. H. L. Hemming, charged with the 
crime of teaching and preaching without a licence. 

The persecuted missionary is not left to himself, in the 
presence of these enemies of the truth. God is with him, 
keeping him in perfect peace, because his mind is stayed 
upon Him. Moreover, since he has been in the custody of 
the constable Drake, two other missionaries have arrived 
from Kingston, to render such sympathy and aid as may be 
in their power to the prisoner already lying in a loathsome 
cell. Providentially they make their appearance on the 
scene, just in time to give counsel and support to the new 
victim of magisterial oppression ; whose heart is greatly 
cheered and strengthened by their presence. Joseph Ortcn 
is a man of different temperament from his fellow sufferer. 
Possessing the high moral courage of the established Chris 
tian, and raised above the fear of man, he has neither the 
physical energy nor the stern dogged resolution of him 



88 BOMAffCE OF THE MISSION FILLD. 

who, sliut up in yonder filthy dungeon, would go forth to 
the stake or the scaffold, rather than yield the Christian 
right for which he has taken a firm stand. 

Mr. Orton is willing to go forth to prison, or to die, for 
the sake of the truth, if the Master should require it of 
him ; but it is to him, notwithstanding, a source of un 
speakable satisfaction, that he has two such friends to be 
with him in the trying hour. They are no common men 
whom the Lord has brought to his side at this juncture. 
There is the shrewd, intelligent countenance, and the clear 
piercing eye, of Peter Duncan ; the noble intellectual brow, 
surmounted by a mass of sable locks, in which as yet age 
has strewn no silvery hairs. As the magistrates look upon 
his short thick-set figure, and mark the light that beams 
in his eye, and the somewhat quizzical half smile curling 
his lip, they cannot help feeling that their proceedings are 
closely watched by one upon whom it will not be an easy 
matter to impose what is at variance with justice, or 
contrary to the law. 

There is also the fine, handsome form of John Barry, every 
line of whose open, manly countenance is expressive of the 
lofty intelligence which flows from his lips in strains of 
thrilling eloquence, attracting admiring multitudes to crowd 
the sanctuary when he occupies the pulpit. Possessing a 
far better knowledge of the law than nine-tenths of the 
magistracy of the island, with graceful, easy manner, and 
indomitable self-possession, he takes his place by the side of 
his persecuted friend, prepared to resist the encroachments 
of an intolerant faction. 

Such are the men upon whom the magistrates gaze 
with a sort of undefined foreboding, something like what 
Haman must have felt in the presence of Mordecai, that 
these are adversaries before whom they are destined to fall, 
and be put to shame. But they are committed already to 
a certain course, and are too proud to fall back. 

When the charge has been formally made, the accused 
denies having violated any law, and calls upon the magis 
trates to produce, if they are able, any British or colonial 



SUFFERING FOR THE TRUTH. 89 

statute whose provisions he has infringed. He produces 
his letters of ordination, with certificates, showing that he 
has subscribed the oaths and declarations required by the 
Toleration Law both in Great Britain and in one of the 
neighbouring parishes, maintaining that he has done all 
the law requires to qualify him for exercising his ministry in 
any part of Jamaica. He professes himself ready to take 
the oaths again, if the magistrates require him to do so ; 
but considers himself as fully qualified by law to preach in 
St. Aim s parish, or elsewhere in Jamaica, as they are to 
exercise their magisterial functions where they are now 
sitting. 

The court is unable to produce any law violated by 
the prisoner, though repeatedly challenged to do so by 
Mr. Orton and his friends. To all their demands the 
reply of these dignitaries is, " We have instituted a 
regulation to prohibit any person preaching in the parish 
without having been licensed by the quarter-sessions, and 
taken out a certificate of such licence." The missionaries 
respectfully remind them that it is not their province to 
make new laws restricting the rights of the subjects of the 
crown, but simply to administer the law as it already exists ; 
and that they are assuming an unwarrantable authority, in 
instituting a regulation destructive of the lawful rights and 
liberties of their fellow subjects. The utmost thelaw empowers 
them to do is to require the prisoner to take the prescribed 
oaths over again ; and to that he is perfectly ready to submit ; 
prepared in all things to respect the authority of the magis 
trates, while they confine themselves to the legitimate 
exercise of their functions. 

These worthy gentlemen are very indignant, that 
Methodist preachers should presume to instruct them in 
their duties ; although it is quite manifest from their 
proceedings that they are profoundly ignorant both of the 
law itself, and also of what comes properly within the range 
of their magisterial power. They scornfully and peremptorily 
refuse to administer the oaths ; and avow their determina 
tion not to suffer any missionary to preach in the parish, 



90 BOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

without the licence which they are resolved not to give. 
This amounts to a resolution that the thousands of slaves 
and free coloured people in the parish shall be cut off from 
all religious instruction. If they do not obtain it from the 
missionaries, they cannot receive it from any other source ; 
the rector of the parish being well known as one of the 
very worst specimens of the slave-holding fraternity. 

Neither ruffled nor discomposed, the prisoner is resolved 
to hold on to his rights, and to yield to no demands on 
the part of the oppressors not warranted by law, what 
ever may be the consequences. In this he is sustained 
by the missionary brethren at his side ; for they know very 
well that submission in one instance to unlawful authority 
will, with such men as the St. Ann s ma istrates, only lead 
to further encroachments on their part. When, therefore, 
the magistrates require that the accused shall give bail to 
appear and take his trial at the quarter-sessions, and also 
that he will not on any account preach in the parish, he refuses 
to give any such undertaking. They have no lawful autho 
rity to impose silence on the duly ordained and licensed 
minister of the Gospel ; and he will not be a party to any 
act that will for a moment recognise and admit such an 
illegal assumption of power. 

The other missionaries frequently offer themselves as 
securities for the appearance of both the prisoners, and 
demand their release on bail ; but distinctly refuse to pledge 
themselves that they shall desist from the performance of 
ministerial duties. Finding that Mr. Orton is altogether 
intractable, and that his friends are equally firm in resisting 
the arbitrary restrictions the magistrates seek to impose upon 
him, the clerk is directed to make out his commitment to the 
gaol. This is done in a way that tacitly admits the unlaw 
fulness of the procedure; for no reference is made in the war 
rant to any law that has been violated. The prisoner is then 
led off to be locked up in the same cell with the imprisoned 
missionary he came to visit. " Of the horrid state of the 
place," Mr. Orton says, " an idea can scarcely be formed 
from any representation I can give ; for common decency 



SUFFERING FOR THE TRUTH. 91 

forbids a true description of its filthy condition, and the 
many unseemly practices constantly presented to our 
notice." 

To make the condition of these suffering servants of Christ 
as unpleasant as possible, the magistrates give strict orders 
that none shall be admitted to see them, except their wives 
and servants ; and that the prisoners shall not be suffered 
on any account to hold prayers. Thus they exceed in 
harshness and tyranny the heathen magistrates at Philippi, 
who satisfied themselves with giving the gaoler charge to 
keep Paul and Silas safely, but left them at liberty to sing 
and pray as much as they pleased. To the last of these 
tyrannical mandates they refuse submission, choosing rather 
to obey the Divine command, " that men ought always to 
pray, and not to faint." The other they are compelled 
to submit to ; a prohibition designed to exclude from 
intercourse with the prisoners the two missionary friends 
who have come to their aid, and of whom the oppressors 
have begun to stand in fear. The accurate knowledge of 
the law exhibited by these two unwelcome visitors ; their 
perfect self-possession and ready speech ; and, above all, their 
manifest determination to vindicate the rights of their 
injured brethren, have made an impression upon the 
magistrates of a very uneasy character, and awakened 
in the oppressors a fear that they have committed them 
selves to a course likely to involve them in trouble and 
perplexity. 

Before leaving the court the troublesome strangers have 
distinctly intimated that it is their purpose to hasten 
to Kingston, and apply to the chief justice for a writ 
of Habeas Corpus, on the ground of illegal imprisonment. 
And the occupants of the bench are by no means so well 
certified of the rectitude of their proceedings as to listen 
to this announcement unmoved ; calling up as it does 
undefined visions of actions for false imprisonment, with 
costs and damages, and writs of supersedeas, divesting 
them of the magisterial powers they have so wantonly 
abused. 



-92 ROMANCE OE THE MISSION FIELD. 

The strangers, not yet aware of the stern directions issued 
by the magistrates, with several other friends, accompany 
their persecuted brother to his cell; no hindrance being 
interposed by the deputy marshal. Nor does he interfere, 
notwithstanding the injunction that no prayers are to be 
offered in the gaol, when they all lift up their voices together, 
and make those prison walls, that have so often re-echoed 
the shriek of agony and the groans of dying sufferers, 
resound with the beautiful inspiring strains of Charles 
Wesley : 

" Who suffer with our Master here, 
We shall before His face appear, 

Aud by His side sit down : 
To patient faith the prize is sure ; 
And all that to the end endure 

The cross, shall wear the crown." 

" The prisoners hear them" for they sing with all the 
lusty energy the occasion inspires ; and as many of the 
inmates of the prison as can do so, attracted by the 
unwonted sounds, gather about the doors of the cell, and 
reverently kneel down, while first one and then the other of 
the visitor missionaries commend their two suffering brethren 
in earnest prayer to the grace of God, and the protection 
of His ever-watchful providence. This done, the prison 
gates are closed upon the victims of intolerance, and 
their friends depart, not without painful apprehensions that 
probably they will never see those prisoners again in life. 
Within a few hours, on their journey to St. Ann s Bay, they 
have stood by the yet fresh grave of the martyred Grrimsdall, 
mournfully pondering the mysterious providence that per 
mitted him to fall, in early life, a victim of pro-slavery 
persecution. And they have not failed to observe how the 
horrible condition of the gaol has been aggravated by 
heavy rains, saturating the masses of filth heaped in 
all directions on and around the premises ; causing, under 
the fierce rays of a tropical sun, the exhalation of sickening 
odours, and impregnating the atmosphere about the prison 



SUFFEBING FOR THE TRUTH. 93 

with deadly malaria, corrupting to the blood, and exhaustive 
of all vital energy. 

Remaining in the town no longer than is necessary to rest 
the horses which brought them over the mountains, and to 
obtain some refreshment themselves, before sunset they are 
away on their route to Kingston, with the view of initiating 
measures to obtain the release of the prisoners. They 
have a journey of sixty miles before them, through a 
beautiful country, but over a toilsome road ; and as the 
same wearied horses that brought them must also take 
them back, no public conveyance being available, they 
cannot travel with anything approaching the railroad speed 
of modern times. 

The persecutors are not yet satisfied with what they have 
done. Mr. Watkis, the local preacher, resides at St. Ann s 
Bay. On the Sabbath following the committal of the 
second prisoner, he and several members of the church 
assemble at an early hour in the chapel to offer prayer to 
God on behalf of His persecuted servants. Drake again 
makes his appearance amongst them, and, producing a 
warrant, claims Mr. Watkis as his prisoner, charged with 
unlawful preaching and teaching on the previous Sabbath. 
On that occasion the people had sung a hymn, and engaged 
in prayer. But Jamaica magistrates cannot be made to 
understand that there is any difference between praying and 
preaching. To their confused conceptions the two things 
are identical. The local preacher is at once taken before a 
magistrate : that it is the Sabbath, makes no difference ; the 
charge is immediately entered into. The accused endea 
vours to make the learned administrators of the law under 
stand that he is falsely charged with preaching and 
teaching, as he did neither the one nor the other. On the 
occasion specified, he and the people who were assembled 
sung a hymn, and then he offered prayer to God, and 
dismissed the assembly. But preaching is praying, and 
praying is preaching. It must be so, for the court 
rules it ; and the offender shall go to gaol. For what 
right has any sectarian to pray in the parish without the 



94 EOMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

permission of the magistrates, and the licence of the quarter- 
sessions ? 

Mr. Watkis offers bail to appear and answer to the 
charge at the quarter-sessions. But this is refused ; the 
offence is of too serious a character to be bailable. And so, 
like one in the olden time, for the crime of offering prayer 
to the God of heaven, he is sent to join his beloved ministers 
in the den of lions, those devouring monsters, respectively 
named ague, fever, consumption, &c., there to be destroyed, 
unless the Lord shall, in answer to the earnest prayers 
going up from hundreds of heart-crushed slaves, and other 
sympathizing friends, send His angels to shut the lions 
mouths. For three days Mr. Watkis is honoured in sharing 
the imprisonment of his missionary friends, and joining in 
their prayers and hymns of praise, which these servants of 
the Lord persist in offering, notwithstanding the interdict of 
the magistrates. At the end of this period, the parochial 
magnates, having reconsidered their determination, consent 
to accept the proffered bail ; and he is suffered to leave the 
prison, and return to his family. 

Meanwhile measures are taken to rescue the other sufferers 
out of the hands of their persecutors. But there is some 
unavoidable delay. It is found necessary to obtain affidavits 
from the prisoners themselves, before the application for a 
writ of Habeas Corpus can be made in due form. For this 
purpose a special messenger has to be sent across the moun 
tains to St. Ann s Bay, which occupies several days. The 
chief justice, Sir William Scarlett, a brother of Sir James 
Scarlett, afterwards Lord Abinger, is himself a native of 
Jamaica ; a gentleman of eminent legal talent and acquire 
ments, little, if at all, inferior to those which procured his 
brother s elevation to the distinguished position he occupied 
among the legal dignitaries of Great Britain. Moreover, 
he is a man of large, liberal, and philanthropic views, and of 
simple, unobtrusive piety. Appreciating aright the value and 
importance of missionary labour amongst the slaves in the 
colony, and aware of the true character of the opposition 
offered to the missionaries by the planters ; and being himself 



SUFFERING FOE THE TRUTH. 95 

personally acquainted with several of the missionaries, and 
accustomed occasionally to attend their ministry ; no diffi 
culty is to be apprehended from unreasonable prejudices and 
prepossessions on his part. 

When the necessary arrangements have been perfected, 
and the application is made to the judge in chambers, the 
writ of Habeas Corpus is at once granted, on the ground of 
illegal imprisonment. With all speed an express messenger 
is dispatched with the important paper. It is addressed to 
the deputy marshal of St. Ann s, directing that official to 
remove his prisoners to Kingston without delay, and bring 
them before the chief justice on a day specified in the 
document. 

The deadly atmosphere they are compelled to breathe is 
doing its work upon the health of the prisoners. One of 
them has now been two weeks in that stifling cell. Although 
much more robust than his companion in tribulation, he is 
beginning to sink under the poisonous influences which are 
circulating through his veins. The other, of more delicate 
organization, has been ten days shut up within those 
prison walls ; and in his case the effects of the poison he has 
been inhaling with every breath during that period, are more 
rapidly developed. His health visibly declines ; and serious 
apprehensions prevail that he will soon follow the departed 
Grimsdall to a martyr s grave. Under the burning grasp of 
the fever, his energies are paralysed, and he is reduced to a 
state of almost infantile weakness. His wife, who has been 
sent for, has arrived from Montego Bay, and attends upon 
him with loving, anxious care. But he sinks rapidly ; and it 
is evident that a few days more in that sickly den will suffice 
to bring his earthly course to an end; and the prisoner, 
released from confinement without any legal process, will leave 
the rector and magistrates of St. Ann s with the guilt of 
another murder lying at their door. 

Hour after hour the strength of the restless sufferer 
diminishes. The anxious wife, and the scarcely less anxious 
fellow prisoner, are looking for the arrival of the expected 
messenger from the city, with the authority for their 



96 ROMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

removal, until " hope deferred maketh the heart sick ;" and 
the most painful apprehensions prevail that when he does 
come with the document that is to release the prisoners 
from that pestilential dungeon, it will be too late to save the 
life of one of them, and that he will go forth only to suffer, 
sink, and die. 

At length the messenger arrives with the missive of the 
chief justice. The deputy marshal, who has charge of the 
prisoners, has no sympathy with the persecutors ; and being 
himself satisfied that further detention in the gaol will be 
fatal to the life of one of them, he resolves at once to set 
them both at liberty on parole ; only stipulating that they 
will not compromise him with the magistrates by holding 
any public religious service while he is responsible for their 
safe custody. To this reasonable request they readily accede ; 
for in the case of one it would scarcely be practicable, 
and in that of the other quite impossible, because of the 
debilitating effect produced upon them by the noxious 
influences of the prison. With no small difficulty the sick 
prisoner rises from his mattress ; and it is only after repeated 
attempts, and the use of stimulants to keep him from 
fainting, that he succeeds, with the help of kind friends, in 
getting on his clothes to leave the cell. Too weak to walk 
alone, he is kindly supported through the filthy gaol yardj 
and lifted into the vehicle that awaits him at the gate. 
Eight glad are these afflicted servants of Christ to enjoy the 
quiet and rest of the Sabbath that follows the day of their 
liberation on parole. Their repose is interrupted only by 
the welcome, tearful expressions of sympathy shown by large 
numbers of the loving, grateful people, who know that it is for 
Christ s sake, and on their own behalf, that these sufferings 
have been endured by their ministers. 

The kindness and consideration of the deputy marshal, in 
setting his prisoners at liberty on parole, is very offensive to 
some of the persecutors, who would have rejoiced to see the 
victims of their malice sink to death within the confines of 
the prison. Drake, ever active in doing the wickedness 
which the brain of the cunning rector plots, on hearing that - 



SUEFEBING FOR THE TBUTII. 97 

the missionaries are out of gaol, immediately rides off to 
report the facb to one of the persecuting magistrates. When 
the deputy-marshal is called upon to account for the prisoners 
being at large without the sanction of these parish digni 
taries, he produces the mandate of the chief justice, to show 
that now they are in his custody under a higher authority 
than that of the magistrates of St. Ann s. He informs them 
that he is now only responsible for producing them in 
Kingston before Sir William Scarlett, on the day specified 
in the writ. This he has no doubt he shall be able to do, 
although, to save them from sinking into an untimely grave, 
he has suffered them for the present to be at liberty on 
parole. They grumble and threaten and gnash their teeth 
in disappointed malice ; but they can do no more. And they 
now become subject to no little disquietude. For this pro 
cedure of the chief justice is somewhat ominous. He at 
least does not approve of what they have done ; and his 
interposition is likely to be the forerunner of trouble and 
expensive law proceedings; and possibly loss of the office 
and authority they have wantonly abused for evil purposes. 

Sufficient time has been allowed for removing the prisoners 
across the island to Kingston. After the rest of the 
Sabbath, so grateful and refreshing in their circumstances, 
they are sufficiently recruited to be able to set out and travel 
by gentle stages across the mountains. Their health has 
improved rapidly, after being freed from the poisonous 
atmosphere of the gaol, and all the other depressing influ 
ences by which they were surrounded there : and each day 
of the journey is marked by visible improvement. 

On their arrival in the city, being prisoners, the marshal 
conducts them to the city gaol, according to the terms of 
the writ. While in the act of descending from the vehicles 
in which they have performed the journey, as if to remind 
them of Paul and Silas at Philippi, not only the foundations 
of the prison, but the whole island is powerfully shaken 
and rocked to and fro by a violent earthquake, caus 
ing every heart within the prison walls, and many with 
out also, to quail with terror. All is consternation and 

H 



98 KOMANCE OF THE MISSION TJELD. 

alarm with the officers within ; for who can tell but that 
another shock of the terrible and invisible agent may lay the 
massive prison in ruins, burying all it contains beneath 
the crumbling walls ? Their terror is by no means lessened 
when, on answering the loud summons at the gate, they 
behold two well-known Christian ministers, brought there 
in custody like felons, to be shut up, for no other crime, 
real or pretended, than that of having preached the Grospel 
of G-od to perishing men. Whether it is that they have 
really no vacant room within the walls that they consider 
fit for the accommodation of these persecuted men : or that 
they are afraid, even officially, to have anything to do with 
the unrighteous proceedings of which they know them to be 
the victims, especially with the terrific roar of the earth 
quake yet rumbling in their ears, and every nerve yet 
vibrating with the fearful shock, certain it is that the 
officers refuse to receive the prisoners. 

" Those gentlemen cannot be brought in here. We have 
no place prepared for them," is the reply of the chief official 
to the demands of the St. Ann s deputy-marshal for a place 
in which to lodge his prisoners. " Where, then, are they to 
go ? " " We cannot tell," is the reply ; " we only know 
that they cannot come in here. There is no place in this 
gaol to receive them." "Why, these gentlemen are pri 
soners, and must at least remain for the night." "We 
know they are prisoners, but there is no place for them here. 
We cannot have them in the gaol at all." 

The meanest cell in that prison is a comfortable apart 
ment compared with the uncleanly den to which the tender 
mercies of the St. Ann s magistrates had consigned them ; 
but the officials here will not put their hands in any 
form to the wickedness which has been practised against 
these servants of Christ. Neither is the deputy-marshal, 
who has them in charge, at all disposed to add bitterness to 
their bonds. He rejoices that the opportunity is thus 
created by others of again setting his prisoners at liberty on 
parole. Turning round to them, after this decided refusal 
to admit them into the prison, he politely requests them to 



3TOB THE TEUTH. 99 

find such accommodation for themselves as they can, and to 
meet him at the appointed time and place named in the 
writ. His proposal is very gladly assented to. There is 
no difficulty ; for many hospitable doors are promptly opened 
to receive them. Hundreds are ready to wash their feet, 
and do honour to the men who are thus counted worthy to 
suffer bonds and imprisonment for the sake of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

What a noble character is the upright British judge, who, 
rising above all local influences, and setting at nought the 
prejudices and prepossessions of sect or party, holds the scales of 
justice with an even and impartial hand ! Such is Sir William 
Scarlett, one of Jamaica s noblest sons, and by far the 
greatest man, and the brightest ornament of the bench, that 
ever presided over the administration of justice in her courts. 
During the interval that has elapsed since the writ of 
Habeas Corpus was granted on behalf of the missionary 
prisoners, this upright and sagacious judge has made him 
self acquainted with all the details of the case. On the 
morning after their arrival in the city, the prisoners are 
placed before him, and he immediately orders them to be 
released, as the victims of unprincipled persecution and 
illegal imprisonment. The proceedings of the St. Ann s 
magistrates, in both cases, are pronounced by him to be at 
variance with the law. This decision of the highest legal 
authority in the colony is profoundly mortifying to the 
magisterial gentlemen concerned ; but abundantly more so 
to the rector, the counsellor and prompter of all their evil 
doings. 

A deeper mortification is to follow. The licentious duke, 
with whom Jamaica has been afflicted as its governor, 
has been recalled ; and his place worthily filled by Sir 
John Keane, (afterwards Lord Keaiie, and the hero of 
Scinde,) as lieutenant-governor. With the blunt honesty 
and high sense of honour suited to the character of a British 
general, he is not like his predecessor, to be easily duped 
into acting as the tool of a clever, time-serving, and ungodly 
clergyman. The illegal and oppressive proceedings of the 

H 2 



100 KOMAtfCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

St. Ann s magistrates have arrested his attention ; or they 
have heen reported to him by the chief justice. It has 
aroused his generous indignation that the laws, intended 
for the protection of the king s subjects, should thus be 
perverted into an engine of oppression and cruelty : and, 
without loss of time, he directs the magisterial commis 
sions of Messrs. Rose and Hemming to be cancelled, 
and their dismissal from office gazetted. Shorn of their 
honours, and deprived of the authority which they have 
exercised for vile and wicked purposes, they retire into 
private life, and can meditate at their leisure upon those 
utterances of heavenly wisdom : " The wicked is snared in 
the work of his own hands." " Whoso diggeth a pit shall 
fall therein ; and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon 
him." 

Aware that the whole body of magistrates in the parish 
are more or less implicated in the injustice which two or 
three have been forward to perpetrate, the lieutenant- 
governor accompanies this act of well-deserved severity with 
a letter, addressed to the whole of the justices of the parish, 
admonishing them as to their future proceedings; and 
assuring them, in language more pointed than elegant, 
that " the Wesley an missionaries are not to be hunted down 
like a parcel of dogs." 

Such decisive action on the part of the lieutenant-governor 
is not more grateful to the baffled persecutors than the snatch 
ing away of its half-devoured prey would be to the hungry 
tiger. To be confronted, braved, and out-manoeuvred by 
Methodist preachers, whom they have looked upon and 
trodden down as the dust beneath their feet, is sufficiently 
mortifying. But to be shown up before the world as 
ignorant, arbitrary, and oppressive ; and through them to 
have their magisterial decisions reversed and censured, 
and to be covered with shame and ignominy, and disgracefully 
expelled from the magistracy on their account, this is 
indeed humiliation hard to be endured. Nor will they 
endure it without at least an effort to obtain revenge. 

Men capable of conduct like that of these St. Ann s 



STJFFEBINO FOR THE TBUTH. 101 

gentry, are not likely to be scrupulous about means, 
when passion is aroused, and the thirst for vengeance 
is raging. Hemming is a young man, and not, like his 
associate in evil, indurated past feeling by long familarity 
with cruelty and vice. He therefore sits down quietly under 
the disgrace and mortification he has brought upon him 
self by yielding to the counsels of evil-minded men, and 
allowing himself to be used as a tool to work out their bad 
purposes ; and he resolves to profit by the painful lesson he 
has received, and be a wiser man in future. 

It is different with the other expelled magistrate and his 
abettors and counsellors. They have felt no qualms ot 
conscience in violating the oaths by which they had bound 
themselves to be faithful administrators of the law ; and why 
should they be deterred from going a little further in the 
same direction ? It will cost only a little more false swear 
ing, and their desire for revenge may be gratified. A 
conspiracy is therefore at once entered into, to charge the 
lately imprisoned missionaries with wilful and corrupt 
perjury, in having made affidavit that bail was offered on 
behalf of the prisoners, and refused by the magistrates. 
Rose, the dismissed magistrate, Drake, the constable, and 
another person, are found ready to bear false witness in this 
case ; and accordingly an indictment is prepared against Mr. 
Orton, one of the released prisoners. The same offence is 
charged against Messrs. Duncan and Barry ; but their 
affidavits having been sworn to in another county, the 
prosecution must be carried on there. 

Mr. Orton s case is brought on for trial at the grand court 
for Middlesex. The grand jury there is formed chiefly of 
planters, and altogether of white men. Not a few of them 
are from St. Ann s parish, and quite ready to return a 
true bill on very slight evidence, or no evidence at all, if it 
be against a missionary ; or to ignore bills in the face of 
evidence the most abundant and conclusive, if it be intended 
to redress any grievance or wrong that missionaries have 
suffered. It does not therefore excite any surprise when a 
true bill is proclaimed in the case of Mr. Orton. 



102 EOMA.NCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

Unfortunately Sir William Scarlett has, since the mis 
sionaries were liberated from the hands of their persecutors, 
been compelled by failing health to leave the island ; and it 
devolves upon one of the assistant judges, who generally 
have had no legal education, and do not often possess a large 
share of ability, to preside in the supreme court. On this 
occasion, Mr. Richard Barrett, the speaker of the House 
of Assembly, is the presiding judge. He is a man of 
more ability than many of his compeers ; but he lacks the 
learning and high sense of honour of which Sir William 
Scarlett is possessed in an eminent degree. He is, moreover, 
a thorough-going pro-slavery man, largely interested in the 
system which makes merchandise of man, and full of planter 
prejudices concerning missionaries and their work. That he 
should manifest a strong bias in favour of the prosecutors, 
and act as if he were one of the counsel for the prosecution, 
rather than as the upright and impartial judge, is only a 
matter of course. He acts up to his character, as a man 
whose nobler faculties have been blighted by close contact 
with slavery throughout the entire proceedings. 

The attorney-general, upon whom it should devolve to con 
duct the prosecution, is a Mr. Hugo James. He is a man 
whose established character for honour and integrity forbid 
the supposition that he will pander to the prejudices of the 
planters, or wrest justice to gratify their malignity. Conse 
quently, Mr. Batty, a barrister of different stamp, one of 
the slave-holding fraternity, and known to be not so 
scrupulous, is retained, in hope that his red-hot intolerance 
will make up for the nagging zeal of the attorney-general. 
They have no hope of being able to mould Mr. James to 
their wishes ; for, not long ago, he gave very decisive proof 
of his impartiality in prosecuting three of the magnates of a 
neighbouring county for murder ; these worthies having, in 
the plenitude of their magisterial authority, directed the 
execution of a black man without trial. But Mr. Batty 
may be relied upon for doing all that they desire of him. 

All that can be accomplished by Mr. Batty s unscrupulous 
sophistry and zeal, by the hard and reckless swearing of tha 



SUFEEEING FOR THE TRUTH. 103 

witnesses, and the partisan influence exerted by the bench, is 
done to secure a conviction. But the discrepancies and 
contradictions in the testimony of Rose and Drake, the two 
principal witnesses, are so palpable ; and the direct testimony 
to the fact that bail was repeatedly offered on behalf of the 
two prisoners, but refused by the magistrates, so abundant 
and overwhelming, that even a white Jamaica jury are com 
pelled, against their own inclinations, to do an act of justice, 
by delivering a verdict of "Not guilty." The slave- 
holding judge, who has done his best to pervert justice in 
this case, is disappointed. The blustering, bullying, pro- 
slavery advocate, whose excessive zeal did more harm 
than good to the parties he represented, is profoundly 
mortified. And Rose and Drake, branded with the 
crime they have sought to fix upon the innocent man they 
have well-nigh persecuted to the grave, retire from the court 
to receive such consolation from their baffled fellow-perse 
cutors as they may be able to afford, and to bear the scorn 
and contempt of all around them who are not demoralized 
and embruted by contact with slavery. 

The failure of this wicked prosecution necessarily involves 
the abandonment of further proceedings in the case of 
Messrs. Duncan and Barry. For if a jury largely composed 
of St. Ann s planters cannot find a verdict favourable to the 
persecutors, there is no hope that their evil purposes can be 
accomplished in either of the other counties, where the same 
evidence must be adduced, and where none of the jurors are 
under the immediate influence of the slave-oppressing rector 
of St. Ann s. Thus, in the wise, overruling providence of 
God, a fiendish conspiracy is brought to nought, and the net 
intended to ensnare His servants is broken. 

The indictment instituted against Mr. Whitehouse, the 
first of the two incarcerated missionaries, by the St. Ann s 
court of quarter-sessions, remains to be disposed of. It has 
been deemed advisable, as there is no hope or probability of 
justice being done by the magistrates and jurymen in St. 
Ann s, to remove the case by writ of certiorari into the 
supreme court. This has been done ; and on the next day 



104 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

after the accusation of perjury has been disposed of, this 
indictment is brought forward by the attorney-general ; but 
only to be abandoned by himself and quashed by the court, 
as an outrage against both justice and law. 

In the course of an elaborate argument, the attorney- 
general quotes a judgment of Lord Mansfield, and shows 
that nonconformity is not an offence at common law ; that 
there is no colonial statute whatever in force bearing 
upon the question ; and that by none of the existing tolera 
tion laws of England can the indictment be sustained, or the 
proceedings of the St. Ann s magistrates be justified. He 
shows, what the missionaries constantly insisted on, that the 
magistrates were only empowered to call upon them to take 
the prescribed oaths, and, in the event of their refusal to do 
so, to levy a fine upon them ; and that, having taken the 
oaths in one parish of the island, the missionaries were 
clearly entitled to preach, and exercise all other ministerial 
functions, in every other parish. Therefore the conduct of 
the magistrates, in subjecting Messrs. Whitehouse and 
Orton to imprisonment in the loathsome gaol of St. Ann s 
has been altogether at variance with the law. 

The indictment is ordered by the court to be quashed ; 
by which decision the religious rights and liberties of the 
missionaries and the people of their charge are established on 
a firmer basis than before ; and the oppressive power of the 
slave-holding magistrates is so circumscribed as to place 
them in the condition of a serpent which, while retaining all 
its natural ferocity, is rendered harmless by the loss of its 
fangs. God has made the wrath of man to praise Him, and 
the remainder of wrath He has restrained. 

After these wrongful proceedings have been thus brought 
to a conclusion, giving a signal triumph to the cause of 
religious liberty and Negro instruction, many persons advise 
that a prosecution should be instituted against the magis 
trates of St. Ann, who, by violent persecution, and the unlaw 
ful exercise of the authority entrusted to them, have hunted 
and hurried one of God s servants out of life, and so broken 
down the health and constitution of another, that he will 



SUPFERING TOR THE TRUTH. 105 

never be a strong man again, arid will probably sink into a 
premature grave.* They have laid themselves open to an 
action for false imprisonment ; and after the opinion so 
clearly expressed by the attorney-general, and the decision of 
the court reversing their proceedings, the result would not 
be doubtful. Bat those who have been injured remember 
that it is written, " Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, saith 
the Lord," and choose rather to follow His example, who 
prayed on behalf of His persecutors, " Father, forgive them ; 
for they know not what they do." 

Moreover, both the offending magistrates, though culpable, 
are not so to an equal extent. The younger one, Hemming, 
has stood aloof from the wicked attempt to fix upon the 
missionaries the charge of perjury, refusing to be a party to 
it. And throughout he has manifested far less of the bitter 
ness and malignity which characterized all the proceed 
ings of his associate, Rose. They are already punished in 
some measure by a disgraceful expulsion from office ; and 
they may well be left to Him who judgeth righteously, while, 
in the true spirit of the religion they teach, the imprisoned 
missionaries show that they can forgive their persecutors. 

* The constitution of Mr. Orton was so far undermined by his 
imprisonment that he never fully recovered. He remained in the 
colony for a year, suffering much from debility, and vainly striving 
to discharge his missionary duties. He was then compelled to 
return to England, a shattered, enfeebled, and prematurely old man. 
Here he rallied sufficiently to enable him to undertake a mission to 
Australia. But the poison inhaled in a Jamaica prison was never 
thoroughly eradicated from his system ; and, while yet a compara 
tively young man, he died on his passage to England from Australia 
in 1842, and sleeps beneath the waves, until the morning dawns 
when, at the loud blast of the archangel s trump, the sea shall give 
up its dead. This persecuted minister was the first to introduce 
into Victoria, in Australia, the ordinances of public worship. " The 
occasion was striking, and worthy of commemoration. On the 26th 
of April, 183G, the Eev. Joseph Orton preached on Batanis hill to a 
mixed congregation of Europeans and natives. The place was then a 
green mound in the primeval forest; and Melbourne consisted of 
three huts and three houses, hardly distinguishable from the 
unbroken wilderness that stretched around." 



Y. 

JUDGMENT HILL. 

OFT o er the Eden islands of the West, 
In floral pomp and verdant beauty drest, 
Eolls the dark cloud of God s awakened ire ; 
Thunder and earthquake, whirlwind, flood, and fire, 
Midst reeling mountains and disparting plains, 
Tell the pale world, " The God of vengeance reigns." 

MONTGOMERY. 

N the interior of Jamaica, at no great distance from 
^J\ Kingston, the mercantile capital of the island, a spot 
is pointed out which bears this remarkable designation, 
from having been, a little more than half a century ago, the 
scene of a startling catastrophe, which impressed many 
persons, who were but little accustomed to any thing like 
serious reflection, with the conviction that it is a fearful 
thing to brave the anger, and " fall into the hands, of the 
living God." 

In the more easterly of the parishes into which Jamaica 
is divided, there are several wide river-courses, which collect 
and bear to the ocean the drainings of the majestic chain of 
mountains that lift; their summits some seven or eight 
thousand feet above the level of the Caribbean Sea, which 
they overlook, and from which they are often clearly 
visible to mariners at a distance of seventy or eighty miles. 
One of these rivers, receiving the waterfall on the southern 
slope of the Port Royal and St. David s mountains, flows 
in a south-easterly direction for more than thirty miles. 
Ordinarily, in dry weather, the narrow stream of limpid 
water, formed by the contributions of many rivulets 
gurgling down the hollows and ravines between the hills, 



JUDGMENT HILL. 107 

rushes with rapid current over the stony bottom of the 
deep channel, sufficiently shallow to be fordable at numerous 
points, and leaving a large portion of the river bed perfectly 
dry. But the immense boulders, and masses of smooth 
rock, scattered in vast numbers over the wide, gravelly 
bed of the river, being brought down by the force of the 
stream, and the torn and rugged banks on either side, bear 
silent witness to the irresistible power with which, in the 
wet season, the mighty mass of turbid water, swollen by a 
thousand rushing torrents, rolls on to its destination. 

Among the hills through which this river winds, and 
stretching along its banks, there is a plantation beautifully 
situated in a curve formed by the sinuosities of its course. 
The rich, well-tilled fields of the plantation, waving with 
the luxuriant sugar-cane, occupy the plain between the deep 
river-course and the foot of the hills. At a little distance 
from the stream, the buildings pertaining to the estate have 
been erected. Prominent amongst these is the great house 
occupied by the proprietor and his family ; and scattered 
around are the miserable huts of the slaves, upon whom 
devolves the weary, unrequited task of cultivating for 
their owner several hundred acres of land which the estate 
comprises ; themselves shut up in densest ignorance, and 
knowing no enjoyment of life but that which they have in, 
common with the mules and cattle, that share with them 
the wasting toil of the plantation. 

Immediately behind these several buildings there towers 
a lofty mountain, rising precipitately from the gentle slope 
whereon the buildings stand, lifting its verdure-crowned 
head nearly a thousand feet to the clouds, and overshadowing 
the plantation buildings and the river. All kinds of rich 
tropical fruits, sheltered here from every unkindly blast, 
flourish in abundance, the mango, the orange, the shaddock, 
the star-apple, and the lime. Every hut is embowered in 
a grove of plantains and bananas, whose large velvet-like 
leaves afford a grateful shelter from the sun ; while the lofty 
plume of the cocoa-nut waves in graceful beauty above, and 
imparts to the whole scene a character of tropical luxuriance 



103 KOMlffCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

with which we may well associate the idea of an earthly 
paradise. 

Satan and sin obtained admission into Eden ; and they 
have found an entrance here. Ungodliness and vice, in some 
of their foulest developments, pervade the colony ; darkness 
prevails everywhere, except where the few missionaries that 
are labouring in the midst of much hatred and opposition, 
have diffused, in some measure, the light of the ever-blessed 
Gospel. All classes, masters and slaves, whites and blacks, 
are sunk in deep moral debasement together. And the 
clerical order, making merchandise of the bodies and souls of 
men, and mixed up with the worst abominations of slavery, 
are, in most instances, as far removed from all that is virtuous 
and godlj^, as the most abandoned of the slave oppressors. 
But in this secluded plantation, surrounded as it is with 
scenes of surpassing natural loveliness, there is a den of vice 
and pollution, to which no parallel can be found in all this 
wicked land. -A monster of wickedness, who has given 
himself up to work all uncleanness with greediness, the 
owner of that lovely spot, has converted it into such a sink 
of loathsome, nameless depravity, that all the neighbours 
for miles around stand aloof from him and all that pertain 
to him, and hold no avoidable communication with the 
place. It is shunned by all classes of the people, as if a 
deadly pestilence were known to be raging there. 

In no country under heaven is there to be found less of 
everything like prudery than here in Jamaica. The moral 
standard is deplorably low ; and vicious, licentious habits, 
disregard of moral obligations, and forgetfulness of God, are 
prevalent throughout the land. But here is a household so 
utterly abandoned and vile in their associations and habits, 
that even the low degraded society of Jamaica scorns them 
as its outcasts, and turns away from them with loathing. 
No planter from the surrounding estates calls to take a 
friendly glass with the overseer, who is also the owner of 
the plantation. No neighbour goes to render friendly 
offices in time of sickness ; and even the medical man, who 
.periodically visits the hot-house (the hospital) of the estate, 



JUDGMENT HILL. 109 

and prescribes medicine for the slaves disabled by sickness 
from taking their usual place in the field, lingers not, as 
he does on all the other plantations he attends, to dine or 
hold a carouse with the magnate of the estate. 

Year after year passes away, but still the man and his 
estate are shunned ; for the lapse of time only serves to 
develop more and more the God-defying wickedness which 
is not only practised but boasted of there ; awakening 
more and more fully the indignation and disgust of all 
around towards the depraved denizens of that secluded 
habitation, amongst whom all decency and propriety are set 
at nought, and the natural relations and distinctions known 
in families are utterly confounded and lost. There are 
some who look on the place with fear and trembling, as well 
as loathing ; half expecting that this den of wickedness, 
with its associations of depravity, will be dealt with in some 
such way as the Just and Holy One dealt with the guilty 
inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. 

The owner of the plantation has become hoary in hi:> 
evil career ; and wealth has been increasing in his hands, 
serving only to promote strife and discord amongst the 
incestuous brood of which he is the head ; when the hand 
of Jehovah is lifted up, and that event occurs, the memorial 
of which is handed down in the designation that stands at 
the head of this paper. 

Jamaica has often been fearfully desolated by the hurricane 
and the earthquake, causing a lamentable destruction of 
property and life, and sometimes throughout vast districts 
changing the whole aspect of the country. It was on the 
18th and 19th of October, one of the months usually 
included in what is known as the hurricane season, when a 
destructive storm swept over the eastern parishes of the 
island, accompanied, as effects would seem to indicate, by 
severe shocks of earthquake. A preternatural discharge of 
water from the heavens destroyed many sugar and coffee 
plantations, sweeping off all vegetation, or burying it, to 
the depth of many feet, beneath the earth and stones and 
sand which the descending torrents wash down from the 



110 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

neighbouring mountains. The swollen rivers overflowed 
their banks, the rushing waters bearing all before them, and 
producing a scene of devastation, extending from shore to 
shore over a length of fifty miles, that defies all description. 
Many vessels were stranded on the coast ; and upon the 
land the victims of this struggle of the elements, who had 
the good fortune to escape with life, lost all their property. 
The descent of huge masses of earth and rock from the 
sides of the hills could be compared only to the avalanches 
in the valleys of the Alps ; and the features of the country 
were so materially altered by the dynamic sweep of the 
floods, rivers, and water-courses, and all well-known land 
marks so entirely obliterated, that survivors found great 
difficulty in ascertaining, with anything like certainty, the 
true localities which they were entitled to call their own. 
This difficulty was modified by the great destruction of life 
occasioned by the hurricane ; whole families being swept 
away, leaving no survivor to raise a question concerning the 
titles and boundaries of their property. 

This is the case with the fine plantation occupying so 
pleasant a site near the margin of the river, and converted 
into such a scene of impurity and wickedness by the 
abandoned family claiming it as their home. The morning 
of the day on which this appalling calamity passes over the 
land, finds them, as many mornings have found them, all 
careless and secure, without a thought of God, and without 
any idea of danger hovering near. Extensive fields are 
waving with the ripening canes. Trees laden with luscious 
fruit are all around. Large bunches of cocoa-nuts in every 
stage of growth hang from the ever fruitful trees, which, by 
their continual productiveness, may well symbolize the 
Tree of Life in the vision of the apocalyptic writer, that 
yielded her fruit every month. The white buildings of the 
estate peep out through the openings of the trees, as with 
gentle, graceful motion they yield to the pressure of the 
slightest movement of the air ; the whole landscape, with its 
alternations of hill and dale, exhibiting a scene of bright 
smiling beauty, to be seen nowhere but in the 



JUDGMENT HILL. Ill 

situated within or near to the tropical lines. The next 
morning breaks upon a scene of desolation, exhibiting no 
traces of the earthly paradise on which the sun shed his fer 
vent rays only a few hours before. 

It has been swept with the besom of destruction ; and 
the plantation, with its buildings, its cultivated fields and 
fruitful groves, its slaves and cattle, whose toil extracted 
richness and wealth from the soil, together with the great 
house and all its miserable inhabitants, have been blotted 
from the face of the creation. The overthrow is as com 
plete as that which overwhelmed the polluted cities of the 
plain. No living creature belonging to the place remains 
to tell the tale of woe ; and scarcely a vestige of the ones 
lovely estate is to be found. 

The centre of the hurricane has passed over this vicinity, 
and its utmost violence has fallen upon the spot where the 
justice and purity of the Almighty has long been daringly 
outraged. The fair, cloudless, but oppressively sultry 
morning has been followed by the gathering of thick black 
banks of cloud upon the eastern sky, and the ominous 
moaning of the wind, betokening the coming tempest, signs 
too well understood by the inhabitants of tropical regions. 
As the sun slowly descends to the westward, these pre 
cursors of coming evil become more decided and unmistake- 
able ; and at length the tornado bursts upon the land in all 
its desolating fury, a violence which can only be justly 
appreciated by those who have witnessed a West India hurri 
cane. The danger is aggravated by the dense darkness of 
the night. Many are crushed beneath their falling dwell 
ings, while numbers of lives are sacrificed in the attempt to 
gain through rushing torrents some desired place of refuge. 

But a peculiar catastrophe seals the fate of this planta 
tion and its inhabitants. That to which they probably 
looked for safety becomes their destruction. Snugly 
sheltered beneath the shadows of the lofty mountain, they 
might well fancy themselves far less exposed to peril than 
many of their neighbours, whose habitations were open to 
the utmost fury of the elements. But uplifted by some 



112 BOMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

invisible force, probably the stupendous power of the earth 
quake, during the midnight darkness, the mountain is 
moved from its foundations, and thrown prostrate in wild 
confusion on the plain and into the river ; burying beneath 
its enormous masses every building of the plantation, and 
every soul existing upon it. They, and all belonging to 
them, have disappeared from human ken, as if they had 
never been ; as when God, in His anger, caused the earth to 
open her mouth, and swallow upKorah, Dathan, and Abirarn ; 
and their houses, and all that appertained unto them, went 
down into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they 
perished miserably. So were this planter, and his family, 
and all his goods, buried in a moment out of sight of men > 
their immortal spirits passing suddenly to an unchanging 
doom, with all their sins and pollutions fresh upon them. 

To make the destruction more complete, the fallen moun 
tain dammed up the river, already swollen to overflowing ; 
until the mass of accumulated waters, forcing their own 
way, and making fresh channels for themselves, bear away 
in their desolating progress whatever the hurricane has 
failed to destroy. When morning dawns through the still 
raging tempest, not a living creature remains ; every trace 
of cultivation has disappeared, and the very outlines of the 
plantation have been so completely obliterated that it is 
difficult to tell exactly where it lay. All belonging to the 
estate that is not buried beneath the upturned mountain, 
has been borne far away by the flood to the Caribbean Sea, 
except some carcases of human beings or beasts, lodged 
in crevices or bushes by the rushing waters on their course, 
and left there to become the prey of the ravenous vulture. 

" I will make thy grave ; for thou art vile," Jehovah said, 
when Nineveh was rapidly filling up the measure of her 
iniquities ; and beneath the crumbling earth of her own 
massive walls and palaces He buried the city which had 
been the scene of so much that was abominable in His sight. 
And there, hidden in the dust from all human search, she 
remained during the lapse of many centuries ; thus fulfilling 
His own faithful word, " The wicked shall be cut off from 



JUDGMENT HILL. 

the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of 
it." So in this instance, after many years of longsuffering 
and forbearance, His hand is lifted up against the evil-doers, 
and overwhelms them with such manifest tokens of a Divine 
visitation, that even in Jamaica, where there is little- 
recognition of God, His justice in the event is acknowledged, 
and the scene of the catastrophe is distinguished by tla& 
designation of Judgment Hill. 



VI. 

THE ASSASSIN. 

BLOOD hath strange organs to discourse withal ; 
It is a clam rous orator, and then 
E en nature will exceed herself to tell 
A crime so thwarting nature. 

GOMEESALL. 
^^5 

(nrJuBiNQ- seventeen years that I spent in Jamaica, extend- 
p-jfcj ing over one of the most eventful periods of its history* 
v fe> it tell to my lot to reside for several years in the St. Ann s 
Mountains. St. Ann s is one of the north-side parishes ; and, 
because of its surpassing loveliness, is frequently spoken of as 
" The Garden of Jamaica." The designation is not, however, 
very well chosen, as its beautiful and varied scenery more 
resembles that of a wide-spread park than a garden ; for it isthe 
wild, impressive grandeur of nature that greets the eye, rather 
than the elegance and beauty which speak of the taste and 
handiwork of man. The far-stretching forests., clothed with 
the perennial verdure of never-ending spring ; the bold 
ranges of mountains, burying their lofty summits in the 
clouds ; the green slopes and deep ravines ; the vast pasture- 
fields, waving with luxuriant Guinea grass and studded 
with thousands of majestic cedars, varied by the rich orange 
or graceful pimento tree, exhibit scenes of enchanting interest 
to the traveller throughout most of this extensive parish, 
the garden-like scenery of which it can boast being confined 
to the narrow strip of land skirting the shore. Devoted to 
the culture of the sugar-cane, and marked here and there 
with the huge piles of building included in the works of the 
plantations, here are displayed more evident traces of human 



THE ASSASSIN. 115 

skill and toil than in that larger portion of the parish which 
is chiefly occupied by breeders of stock, and divided into 
cattle farms or pens, as such properties are usually called, and 
which are largely overspread with the fragrant pimento, yield 
ing in rich abundance the " all-spice" known to commerce. 

One of the peculiarities of this part of the island is the 
existence of numerous " sink-holes, * large openings in 
the earth, communicating with subterraneous passages, by 
means of which the drainage of the towering hills that in 
other parts of the island creates innumerable beautiful rivulets, 
forming in their aggregate considerable rivers is borne off 
invisibly toward the coast; where, bursting out from 
their mountain caverns, large streams, gathered in the 
bowels of the mountains, rush to the sea, exhibiting in 
several instances cascades of great majesty and beauty. 
These " sink-holes " are generally to be found deep down in 
some valley, the character of the ground around them 
plainly indicating their existence ; but occasionally such 
openings are to be met with on more level ground, where 
nothing whatever gives a sign of danger, grass and brush 
growing over the edges of the aperture, and concealing it 
from observation, until the unwary victim, apprehensive of 
no peril, steps over the brink of the treacherous chasm, anu 
disappears, to be seen no more. One or two instances 
occurred during my residence in the neighbourhood of 
sportsmen, eager in the pursuit of game, being lost in this 
way, dropping in a moment, from the very midst of life and 
enjoyment, into a deep, unfathomable grave. 

In the south-western part of the parish there is such an 
opening to the subterranean passages in the mountains 
possessing a kind of historical interest, and visited by 
the curious as one of the lions of Jamaica. It is known as 
" Hutchinson s Hole," because of its association with one of 
those shocking tragedies which, being attended by circum 
stances of unusual horror, stand out prominently and perma 
nently in the annals of crime. Near to it is the ruin of what 
was formerly the residence of the individual who figured as the 
principal actor in the catalogue of atrocities which gave him 

i 2 



116 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION HELD. 

an unenviable celebrity, and caused his name to be handed 
down to posterity as the designation of one of the most 
sanguinary monsters that ever delighted in the shedding of 
innocent blood. The ruin is still known as " Hutchinson s 
Tower." 

Accompanied by a friend, I devoted a day to visiting this 
somewhat celebrated spot. We mounted our horses after an 
early breakfast, and, riding some two miles through very 
charming scenery, arrived at a centre where several roads 
met, known as the " Finger-Post," from the fact that an 
article of that description was erected there by the parish, 
to afford travellers useful information, long before the 
existence of the village now risen in the locality, bearing 
the same name. Directing our course according to the 
indications of this silent monitor, we set our faces in the 
direction of "The Pedroes." For two or three miles our 
road lay through uncleared forest, here and there broken 
in upon by the rude cottage of the Negro settler, who, 
having after emancipation saved money sufficient to purchase 
a small freehold, had here set himself down with his family,, 
in indignant independence of the planters, whose stupid 
folly, equalled only by their reckless malignity, sought,, 
by systematic fraud and oppression, whenever opportunity 
offered, to avenge upon the people the crime of having 
eceived their freedom. But after a little while we rode 
through the open, pleasant pastures of cattle farms, over 
spreading a beautiful vale, and hemmed in by mountains of 
considerable altitude, covered with rows of coffee trees and 
crowned with massive buildings, consisting of the coffee 
works and barbecues of the plantations, and the stately man 
sions of the proprietors. After a ride of several miles, we 
arrived at Edinburgh Castle, the name given to the grazing 
farm to which our visit was directed. 

Situated in the gorge of the mountains, which rise 
abruptly to a considerable height on either hand, there is a 
hill whose precipitous sides seem to forbid the further 
advance of the traveller, until he finds that the narrow road 
winds around its base. At the summit, looking right down 



THE ASSASSIN. 117 

upon the road, is a ruined tower, partly concealed by the 
large trees which have grown up around and covered it 
with their branches. Further up the mountain gorge the 
hill gradually slopes off to a level with the road, affording 
easy access to the tower in that direction. Continuing our 
ride, and leaving the tower it may be a quarter of a mile 
behind us, we turned out of the road, and, passing through 
the adjoining field, descended into a deep hollow, around 
which the mountains slope upward in all directions, forming 
a vast natural basin, rugged with numerous channels, 
through which in the rainy seasons the rushing waters 
descend to find an outlet. Deep down at the bottom of this 
basin, surrounded by a wall to keep the cattle out of danger, 
and overshadowed by the dense foliage of a large clump of 
cedars, we came upon a yawning abyss, several yards in 
diameter, down which the waters find their course through 
unseen channels to the sea. Clambering over the wall, we 
looked down into " Hutchinson s Hole," not without a feel 
ing akin to awe and terror, which was increased when, cast 
ing down several large stones, a considerable time elapsed 
before a splash or rumbling sound came back, to testify the 
immense depth they had descended before meeting with any 
obstruction to their fall. 

About the middle of the last century the tower dignified 
with the name of " Edinburgh Castle " was occupied by a 
Scotchman named Lewis Hutchinson, who was the owner 
of the farm or pen on which it stood. Eight across the 
farm stretched the narrow defile through which wound the 
only road that in those days afforded ordinary means of 
communication between the north and south sides of the 
country. Hutchinson had not only acquired the farm, but 
had also, by some means, become the owner of a sufficient 
number of slaves to perform all the labour the estate 
required; and he had stocked the farm with cattle 
strayed or stolen from his neighbours. He lived in 
the tower alone, or surrounded only by slaves brought 
from Africa, and purchased from the slave ships, which 
then openly carried on the horrible tra me in stolen human 



118 ROMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

beings, unchecked by public opinion, and under the full pro 
tection of the British flag. He held very little intercourse 
with his neighbours ; for, though none suspected that he 
was the monster of crime he turned out to be, yet, exhibit 
ing a morose and gloomy character, he was generally shunned, 
and few cared to hold any intercourse with him beyond 
that which the ordinary business of life rendered unavoidable* 
But the occupant of that lonely tower was an assassin who 
made a trade of murder, and luxuriated in the deliberate 
slaughter of his fellow men. There was then but little- 
communication between the two sides of the island ; and 
that was chiefly carried on by small coasting vessels, run 
ning round the eastern or western, extremities of the land. 
Very few persons ventured to climb the rugged sides of 
the mountain, which the Spaniards named " Diavola," and 
then wind their dreary way through the lonely wooded 
defiles affording the only means of passage by land from 
one coast to the other. 

The terror of the journey was increased by the fact that 
it had been attempted by many persons who had never 
reached their destination or been heard of again. By what 
means they had perished none could guess. Whether cut 
off by freebooters, or carried off by Maroons to their inacces 
sible fastnesses in the forest-covered mountains, never could 
be ascertained. They disappeared, leaving no trace behind ; 
and the mystery was explained only when the atrocities of 
Hutchinson were brought to light. Then it transpired that 
they had fallen by his hand, and that the numerous travellers 
who, in attempting to cross over the island, had dropped out 
of life as suddenly as if the earth had opened and swallowed 
them up, and residents of the neighourhood who had also 
mysteriously disappeared, and were supposed to have been 
engulfed by the treacherous sink-holes in the vicinity, had been 
the victims of as revolting a system of treachery and cruelty 
as ever cast a dark shadow upon the history of any country. 

It was not necessity that drove him to the perpetration 
of crimes worthy of the Thugs of Hindostari, for he was 
wealthy ; nor, although unscrupulous as to the means he 



THE ASSASSIN. 119 

employed to increase his substance, was it altogether the 
love of gain. Of a savage, misanthropical disposition, 
intensified by some real or imaginary injury inflicted upon 
him in his early life, he cherished a fierce, unnatural 
detestation of the human race, and a morbid taste for 
blood, until the contemplation of human agony became his 
chief delight, and his morose and hardened soul found 
its highest gratification in destroying human life. 
Murder became his study and occupation ; and it was 
said of him, as gathered from the testimony of his most 
trusted slave, who survived his master many years, that 
if his destined victim were infirm or sick, he carefully 
attended to him, and revived his strength; or if he 
could behold him first in fancied security, in trie convivial 
assembly, or perhaps in the bosom of his family, it gave him 
greater satisfaction to inflict the blow which cut him off 
and increased his appetite to relish the expiring struggle. 
To enjoy the gory spectacle, he always dissevered the head 
from the palpitating body. His most pleasing occupation 
was to whet his gleaming knife. His gloomy soul was 
sated only by a copious flow of blood. Simply to destroy life 
was not sufficient ; and he experienced a savage delight in 
gloating over the writhing agony from which most men 
instinctively turn away their eyes. He would retain the 
ghastly head where it would be constantly before him; 
and when, through the influences of the climate, it rapidly 
changed, and he could no longer feast his gaze upon the 
decaying countenance, it was his habit to place it high in 
the air in the hollow trunk of a cotton tree, where the vul 
tures could speedily strip it of the putrefying flesh. After 
this the whitened skull was cast down the yawning chasni 
into which the mangled carcase had already been thrown. 

Hutchinson s slaves were made participators of his san 
guinary deeds. These were Africans, procured fresh from 
the slave ships, and speaking only their own language. 
Familiarized with cruelty and blood in their own land, and 
sunk in heathen ignorance, they perceived nothing criminal 
or unusual in these atrocious acts ; and, with the submission 



120 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

with which slaves bow to the will of their owner, they did 
whatever he commanded, and scrupled not to take the 
part assigned to them by their master in helping to destroy 
the living or dispose of the dead. The risk from them was 
slight; for, as they were never suffered to be away from 
the farm, and knew no language but that brought from 
their native wilds across the sea, they were not able, even 
if they felt an inclination to do so, to make any revelation 
concerning the character and doings of their guilty owner. 
But, apart from this, fear would suffice to seal their lips, 
as their own lives lay at his mercy ; and, if it were his 
pleasure to cut them in fragments with the terrible cart- 
whip, in that secluded vale, he could do so with perfect 
impunity. Thus it was that for many years he carried on 
the practice of assassination without being discovered, or 
exciting any suspicion. Occasionally travellers in company 
would traverse the gloomy valley and call at the tower ; and 
these, after being hospitably entertained, passed on in safety, 
their plurality being their protection. But no solitary 
traveller who attempted to thread his way through the 
lonely mountain-gorge, however poor or wretched he might 
be, was suffered to escape alive from the confines of Hutch- 
inson s farm. The tower was so situated as completely to 
command the narrow road ; and the murderer, or one of his 
slaves, kept constant watch for any passer-by who, alone and 
not suspecting danger, might become their prey. The 
needy wanderer would sometimes call at the lonely turret 
the first sign of a human habitation which for many miles 
had greeted his eye, and solicit food and temporary shelter. 
And he would obtain it without grudging ; but it would be 
the last he would ever partake of. The more wealthy 
traveller would halt and seek hospitality at the tower ; 
which would be cheerfully afforded, without any idea of 
remuneration, and he would leave, grateful for the rough 
but apparently kind attentions he had received, only, how 
ever, to meet the cruel fate to which he had been silently 
doomed by the treacherous master of that habitation, while 
sitting at his board in seeming friendly intercourse. From 



THE ASSASSIN. 121 

a loophole of the tower in one direction, or through a thick 
set hedge of logwood prepared for the purpose on the other, 
and both of which perfectly commanded the narrow path, 
the hapless victim would be shot down with unerring 
aim by the assassin or his slave assistants. Sometimes, at 
the cattle-fold hard by the road, the master would detain 
in conversation a wayfarer who might be passing on with 
out stopping at the tower, while his slave from behind the 
fence could leisurely take aim at the unsuspecting victim, 
and stretch him low in death. Thus it was that, for some 
years, lonely travellers across the mountain range of Jamaica 
continued mysteriously to disappear. Not only days, but 
weeks, generally elapsed before they were missed by their 
friends. And then all inquiry was vain ; all traces of them 
had vanished from the face of the earth. 

But the most successful and protracted career of crime 
meets with a check at last. Some oversight, some seeming 
accident, occurs to mar the well planned scheme, and furnish 
a clue to the cleverly concealed villany ; and the evil-doer 
finds in the end how true are the words of inspired 
wisdom, " Be sure your sin will find you out," So it was 
with the assassin Hutchinson. He was suffered to run a 
long course of evil unchecked ; but, in the operations of that 
Providence which is all-pervading and all- controlling, the 
mystery of iniquity was at length unravelled, and the blood 
stained wretch stood revealed in all his terrible enormity of 
crime. A failure in his usual caution, an oversight com 
mitted in his eagerness to accomplish a long-meditated act 
of villany, unmasked the murderer, and brought his guilty 
career to an end. 

In the same vale, but at a considerable distance, was a 
cattle farm similar to his own, th3 manager of which a 
person named Callendar had for a considerable time been 
marked out for assassination by Hutchinson whenever the 
favourable opportunity should occur. By some offence, perhaps 
altogether unintentional, he had awakened against him 
self the inextinguishable hatred of his dangerous neighbour; 
who, however, concealed both his feelings and intentions deep 



122 ROMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

within his own breast. A few of Hutchinson s cattle had 
strayed, and found their way to the property under Callendar s 
care, where they had committed some depredations. "With 
neighbourly kindness, the manager drove them back to their 
own plantation, and delivered them over to the care of their 
owner, requesting that they might not be suffered so to 
trespass again. Such an occasion was not favourable to the 
purposes of the murderer, accompanied, as Callendar 
was, by slave-drovers or cattle-men belonging to the 
estate under his care. The visitor was hospitably enter 
tained, and dismissed with assurances which satisfied him, 
gratified with the apparent cordiality that had marked the 
conduct of his host. The visit was returned, and the 
assassin spent a day in intercourse with his intended victim, 
which seemed to partake of the utmost friendliness. Thus 
a freedom of acquaintance was promoted, that promised to 
give the desired opportunity for the indulgence of the 
treacherous cruelty lying hidden beneath all this show 
of friendship. After two or three visits had been inter 
changed, one day, as the unsuspecting Callendar was going 
to or -returning from the tower, a rifle bullet from behind 
the fatal hedge, fired by the hand of Hutehinson, stretched 
him upon the earth ; and the tragedy was completed in the 
usual way, except that, in this case, as it might be hazardous 
to retain in his possession such a dangerous clue to the 
unfolding of the mystery certain to attach to Callendar s 
sudden disappearance, the bleeding body, with the head still 
attached, was committed to the unfathomable charnel-house 
that had engulfed so many, and which the murderer 
vainly imagined would never give up its dead. 

There happened to be in the tower, confined to bed by 
sickness, an unsuspecting traveller, who had stopped there on 
his journey, and who, wearied and worn out by the illness 
that had overtaken him on the road, had solicited the shelter 
and hospitality of the lone house, until he should be 
recovered sufficiently to pursue his journey. This had been 
freely accorded, and the patient was tended with such rude 
care as the slave denizens of the farm, under the direction 



THE ASSASSIN. 

of their master, were able to afford ; with the intention, on 
the part of the treacherous host, that in due time, when 
the unsuspicious guest should take his departure in all 
confidence and security, and warmed with gratitude for the 
generous treatment he had received, he might gloat over the 
luxury of laying him low with his fatal rifle, and send 
him to join the numerous victims already consigned 
to the deep, yawning abyss close at hand. Having 
in some degree recovered from the fever which for many days 
had prostrated all his energies, and gladly risen from his 
couch, through the small opening that admitted light and 
air into a room he had accidentally entered he became, 
to his inexpressible horror, an unseen witness of the 
assassination of the unfortunate Callendar. He had heard 
of the dark mystery which enshrouded the fate of numerous 
travellers who had ventured to cross the island by that lonely 
road ; and here light was suddenly thrown upon it. He 
could now understand the reason of their inexplicable disap 
pearance. Shocked beyond measure with what he had 
seen, he placed a powerful restraint upon his feelings, and 
let no word or sign escape him concerning the tragedy 
wrought before his eyes, but quietly waited his oppor 
tunity. As soon as his recovered strength permitted, when 
the owner of the tower was absent, possessing himself of a 
horse, and eluding all observation, he effected his escape from 
the fate which he felt sure awaited him, especially if his pos 
session of the terrible secret should for a moment be suspected. 
Unseen and untraced, he made his way to the nearest 
habitation he could find, and the alarm was given. He 
made known the murder of Callendar as he had witnessed it 
from the turret, and the bearing away of the mangled body 
in the direction of the deep sink-hole which received the 
drainings of the surrounding hills. Soon the whole country 
was up in wild excitement ; for suspicion of the truth was 
now awakened, and the mysterious disappearances which 
for years had kept up a painful interest on both sides of the 
island were accounted for. The murderer, on returning 
home in the evening, discovered the escape of his guest, 



BOMANCB OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

whose destruction he had been brooding over for many days 
with savage satisfaction ; and, fearing that the assassination 
of Callendar was known, he fled. Making his way with all 
possible speed across the mountains and through the tangled 
forests, avoiding human habitations and frequented roads, he 
arrived at the south coast. On reaching Old Harbour, one of 
the south-side ports, he took unceremonious possession of an 
open boat, and put to sea, and he succeeded in getting on board 
a ship which was passing the island under sail, congratulat 
ing himself on having, as he supposed, thrown off and baffled 
all his pursuers. But the whole country was up and in pur 
suit ; for intelligence of the discovery which had been 
made spread with unexampled rapidity, aggravated rather 
than lessened by the voice of rumour ; and all were anxious 
that the assassin should be secured, and brought to justice. 

Some hours after the alarm had been given concerning the 
murder of Callendar, a strong party repaired to Edinburgh 
Castle to seize the criminal. Then it was discovered that 
he had taken alarm, and fled ; but his course was traced, 
and it was soon ascertained that he had boarded a passing 
vessel. Admiral Sir George Rodney, the hero of that 
"Western Archipelago, happened to be lying at Port Roj cil 
with the fleet under his command ; and as soon as the intel 
ligence was conveyed to him of what had occurred in St. 
Ann s, and the escape of the assassin, the admiral put to sea 
in his own ship, and speedily overhauled the merchant vessel 
in which the fugitive, in fancied security, was flying to some 
distant shore. Intercepted in his flight, Hutchinson threw 
himself into the waves, seeking there the death which he 
now saw to be inevitable. From this, however, he was 
rescued by the admiral s boats, and reserved for a more 
ignominious fate. 

After the flight and apprehension of the murderer, search 
was made, and then his enormous villany was brought to 
light. No less than forty-two watches were found in his 
chests, all of which had been plundered from the mangled 
bodies of the yet larger number of those whom he had 
slaughtered ; and the fact stood clearly revealed that the 



THE ASSASSI5. 125 

multitude of persons who, through successive years, had dis 
appeared from life in passing across the country had all 
found a tragical end in that mountain gorge, and had 
been swallowed up in the depth of abyss ever yawn 
ing for fresh victims near the murderer s turret. In 
formation was obtained from the slaves, by means of an 
interpreter, as to the method by which the murdered remains 
were disposed of ; and an attempt was made to search the 
dark, fearful-looking pit, by letting down a bundle of 
lighted straw. Far down, at the depth of many feet, sus 
pended on the point of a projecting rock, was discovered the 
mangled putrefying body of the murdered Callendar ; but the 
depths below had more effectually received and disposed of 
all the other victims. 

In due time Hutchirison was brought to trial for the 
murder of Callendar at St. Jago-de-la-Vega. After a display 
-of hardihood and bravado seldom witnessed in a court of 
justice, the ruffian was convicted, and speedily suffered the 
last penalty of the law upon the gallows. " The enormity 
of his crimes," says the historian of the time, " might be 
exceeded by his hardened insolence before his judges ; but 
his reckless gaze upon the instrument which was to convey 
him before the tribunal of his Maker finds no parallel in the 
history of crime or punishment ; nor can the annals of 
human depravity equal the fact that at the foot of the scaf 
fold he left a hundred pounds in gold to erect a monument, 
and to inscribe the marble with a record of his death." The 
document is probably still in existence at Spanish Town, 
written by the hand, and bearing the signature of the noto 
rious criminal, in which he expressed this extraordinary 
wish, only a few moments before his wretched, blood-stained 
soul passed into the presence of its Creator and Judge. The 
record he required to be placed on the tablet in these 
words : " Lewis Hutchinson, hanged in Spanish Town, 
Jamaica, on the sixteenth morning of March, in the year of 
liis Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three. 
Aged forty years. 

4 Their sentence, pride, and malice I defy, 
Despise their power, and like a Koman die. " 



VII. 

THE HELL-FIEE CLUB. 

THESE are they 

That strove to pull Jehovah from His throne ; 
And in the place of heaven s eternal King 
Set up the phantom Chance. 

GLYNN. 

(npl HE foregoing tale of Hutchinson the assassin is properly 
A followed by another, which serves yet more impres- 
^ L sively to illustrate the retributive providence of 
God in the affairs of men. About a week after my 
visit to Hutchinson s Hole I had called at the house of 
a friend, when a gentleman residing in the neighbour 
hood came in. He was a planter, having the manage 
ment of several large properties, and possessing a higher 
degree of mental culture than had fallen to the lot of 
many in the class he belonged to. He had become a 
frequent attendant upon the services at the mission sanc 
tuary, about a mile from the plantation where his residence 
was beautifully situated in one of the finest localities of the 
island ; and the truth had so far wrought upon his mind and 
heart as to induce him to dissever himself from one of the 
vicious habits fostered into general prevalence under 
the corrupting influences with which such a system as 
slavery always pervades the country wherein it is 
unhappily established. After the ordinary salutations had 
passed, and we had resumed our seats, he drew a newspaper 
from his pocket, and directed my attention to a brief obitu 
ary notice contained in it. On looking over it, I found that 
it was the announcement of the death of one who was 
.unknown to me. He was described as a planter of middle 



THE HELL-FIBE CLUB. 127 

age, who had finished his earthly course in a distant part of 
the island. 

" Your discourse on Sunday morning interested me very 
much," said my visitor, when I had read the notice to 
which he had directed my attention, " and I was greatly 
impressed by your remarks concerning a retributive provi 
dence and the illustrations you gave. I was well acquainted 
with many of the men to whom you referred, who are now 
no more ; and with some of them I was intimate for years." 

" My mind was prepossessed very much with the subject," 
I replied, "from having, with a friend, last week, visited 
Edinburgh Castle, celebrated as the scene of the Hutchinson 
tragedies many years ago ; and I was so impressed with the 
facts involved in that case, especially with the manner in 
which the wickedness of the man was brought to light, that 
I was induced to take the warning of Moses to the two 
tribes as my subject for the pulpit on Sabbath morning, 
God has wrought very marvellously during the few years 
past in breaking up and scattering that unlawful association, 
the Colonial Church Union ; and the manner in which His 
hand has been laid upon its founders and leaders, the rector 
and his friend, Mr. H., is to my mind most impressive 
and admonitory. I think it fitting and proper that we 
should, in these things, as in others, consider the works of 
the Lord, and regard the operations of His hand." It was 
God s complaint concerning His ancient people, "When My 
hand is lifted up, they will not see it. But they shall see." 

" I think with you," he said, " that we ought to recognise 
Divine Providence in those events which have occurred. 
Indeed, it is scarcely possible for any thoughtful person to 
do otherwise ; they have been so remarkable. Even Mr. H. 
B., who took a leading part himself in the proceedings 
of the Union, acknowledged, before the accident occurred 
which caused his own death, when he saw first one and then 
another of his friends so suddenly cut off from life, The 
hand of God is in these things/ And that is a very remark 
able confession in the rector s printed address to his parish 
ioners, that * his life had been spent in a vain effort to push 



]2S EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

God out of the world He had made. I observed that you 
did not mention any names : but I understood nearly all the 
cases to which you referred, and knew the parties well. I 
have never known the doctrine of retribution so fearfully 
illustrated anywhere as it has been in this colony during the 
last few years ; and I was glad you took up the subject as 
you did, and discussed it in a manner that could not be 
otherwise than instructive and admonitory to your hearers. 
My thoughts have dwelt largely on the subject ever since ; 
and I was startled when I received this newspaper by the 
post to-day, and read the notice to which I have called your 
attention." 

" I am not aware," I remarked, " that I had any acquaint 
ance with the person. The name is strange to me. Is 
there anything remarkable associated with his history ? " 

" Only this," he said, " that he was the sole survivor of a 
party or club which existed some years ago, and whose his 
tory was very forcibly recalled to my mind as you were 
speaking about providential retribution. I knew some of 
the persons concerned in it personally, and have often 
thought that the Lord dealt with them in a very remarkable 
way. They were all members of what was called the Hell- 
Fire Club, of which you have probably heard, though it is 
now extinct, and has been so for some years." 

" I have heard it spoken of," I replied ; " but I never met 
with any one who could give me particular information con 
cerning the origin and design of an association bearing such 
a significant designation. Perhaps you may be able to do 
so." 

" I am not prepared," said he, "to gratify your curiosity 
to any considerable extent, though I lived for several years 
in the neighbourhood where it existed. It was a club estab 
lished for profane and infidel purposes by some parties at 
Morant Bay; and I believe, though I cannot state posi 
tively, that it originated about the beginning of this cen 
tury, or soon after, when opposition to the missionaries was 
fiercely raging. Who were the founders of the club I never 
heard. I suppose they had rules by which the association 



THE HELL-FIRE CLUB. 129 

was to be governed ; but, if so, they kept them very much 
to themselves. From all I ever learnt about it, I believe it 
was got up to oppose the spread of religion by the mission 
aries, and to propagate and encourage blasphemy and infi 
delity." 

" How long did it continue to exist ? " I inquired. 

" Between twenty and thirty years," he replied : " and 
then it came to an end. The last I heard of it was an occur 
rence associated with the name of the person -whose death is 
reported in the newspaper I have shown to you as having 
taken place a few days ago at Morant Bay. It was there 
the club was first established ; and the incidents with which 
he was identified were of such a character as to make a pro 
found impression upon all who became acquainted with them. 
The facts were partly related to me by himself many years 
ago ; and they were brought very vividly to my recollection 
while I listened to you on Sunday last. I thought it a 
strange coincidence that to-day, on receiving my newspaper 
from the post-office, the first thing my eye lighted on was 
the announcement of that man s death who had been for 
several days so much in my thoughts, and concerning whom 
I felt some anxiety to ascertain whether he was yet living, or 
had followed his former associates to the grave." 

" I should feel obliged," I remarked to my visitor, " if you 
have no objection, if you will relate to me the incidents to 
which you allude. I have long desired to possess myself of 
such particulars as can now be ascertained relative to that 
club, whose very name seems to express something very 
much like a daring defiance of God." 

" I shall be happy," he responded, " to give you the 
information as I received it, which I believe to be substan 
tially correct, coming as it did to me chiefly from a person so 
deeply interested. The members of the club were in the 
habit of meeting at different places, both in town and 
country, as agreed upon among themselves. At one of the last 
meetings I believe the very last there were present ten 
members, mostly planters in charge of the surround 
ing plantations; and it took place on the estate of 



130 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

which the person whose death is mentioned in this newspaper 
was the overseer. I am not prepared to say whether it was 
one of the regular meetings of the club, or an accidental 
gathering of some who were connected with it for one of 
those seasons of debauch and drunkenness to which the 
planters of those days regularly gave themselves up on 
Sundays in most parts of the country. From the number 
assembled I should think it was the former. After 
some hours spent in deep potations and obscene and riotous 
orgies, more befitting fiends than intelligent and accountable 
human beings, until all unhallowed passions became rampant, 
the person who had been chosen to preside over the drunken 
revel called upon his companions to fill up their glasses and 
drink a toast which he would propose for them. This done, 
he proposed the toast so profane, so blasphemous, and 
expressing such outrageous defiance of God that I shrink 
from putting it down. To give point to the words of 
blasphemy and express defiance of the Almighty more 
emphatic than could be enunciated in mere language, it was 
suggested that each of them should hold a loaded pistol in 
his hand and fire it off at the moment of drinking the toast. 
Mad and reckless as they were with excess, several of the 
debauchees were startled and stood aghast at the daring 
wickedness of the proposal. But it was only for a few brief 
moments. Then all were agreed except one, and he the 
overseer of the plantation on which they were assembled. 
Not quite so hardened in wickedness as most of his associates, 
he refused to be a party to the daring profanity; and 
for a time held out against all the persuasion and 
upbraidings with which he was assailed. It was only when 
the reckless men around him threatened violence, and he 
stood in fear of his life, that he yielded a trembling consent 
and drank the toast. Soon after they separated. And that 
was the last meeting of the Hell-fire Club ; for within a few 
weeks most of the company of blasphemers were swept away 
by some violent death. And before the end of three months 
every one was gone to the grave, except the person whose 
death is now recorded in the newspapers, and who was the 



THE HELL-PIKE CLUB. 131 

one that refused for a while to join in the blasphemers toast. 
The last of the nine was the man who acted as president on 
the occasion, and the author and proposer of the profane 
toast. He died under peculiar circumstances, and in 
great agony, which occasioned much remark at the time." 

I here interrupted the narrator to inquire if he had been 
personally acquainted with any of the individuals he had 
referred to. 

"I knew the person," he said, "whose death has just 
taken place, and with two or three of the others I was 
slightly acquainted ; but I was only a young man when these 
circumstances transpired, and I heard them much talked of 
at the time they took place. What occurred at the drinking 
party, together with the toast and the firing of the pistols, 
were all related to me by the individual whose death is 
mentioned here. In consequence of three of the party 
meeting with sudden death during the very next week after 
they had so daringly defied the Almighty, a deep impression 
was made upon his mind, and he was induced to speak 
of what had occurred; otherwise the whole might have 
passed off as other drunken revels had done, and no more 
been said or thought about it. He became a different 
man after that, and went to no more Sunday drinking 
parties. * 

I expressed a desire to be informed if the three persons 
alluded to all met their death at the same time. 

" No," he said. " One of them was an overseer on a 
neighbouring plantation, and was crushed by a piece of 
timber falling upon him. This took place the day follow 
ing the guilty revel. He was giving directions to some 
workmen who were raising the roof of a new building on the 
estate, when a beam or rafter fell and struck him, inflicting 1 
such injuries that he survived only a few minutes. The 
person who has recently died happened to be present when 
the accident occurred. And it is not surprising that 
such an event following immediately upon the drunken 
carouse of the preceding day, which was characterized by 
such desperate wickedness, should make a eerious impression 



132 EOMANCE OF TB.E MISSION ITELD. 

upon his mind; especially when, a day or two later, 
two more of the party were also cut off. They were return 
ing home on horseback from a visit to one of the planta 
tions, having drunk freely with the overseer. But during 
the time they were occupied in the convivialities that 
generally attended such visits, heavy rains in the mountains 
had brought down a flood in the river which they had to 
cross on their return home ; and, as it was dark, they were 
not in a condition to observe how much the waters were 
swollen. They attempted to ford the stream, but were 
washed from their horses, and borne away to the sea by the 
fierce torrent. Their bodies, much bruised and mangled by 
being dashed against the massive boulders in the river- 
course, were found cast ashore on the following day, in a 
condition scarcely to be identified." 

" Do you know," I inquired, " what became of the others ? 
for I think you said they all came to the grave within a 
short time after the meeting at which the blasphemous 
toast was proposed." 

" It is some years now," he said, " since I conversed with 
any one upon the subject, and the particulars are not so 
distinct in my mind as they were. In the lapse of years, 
name*, dates, and places are apt to get confounded, when 
the memory alone is relied upon ; but the main facts were 
of such a character as not easily to be forgotten, though I 
cannot undertake to relate them in the exact order in which 
they occurred. Very shortly after the two were drowned in 
fording the river I think it was the following week a 
Mr. M P., who was one of the drinking party, also in the 
planting line, was riding a young horse not very well 
broken to the bit and saddle, when the animal took fright 
at something that caught his attention, and started off at 
full speed. The road being rough and rocky, the horse 
fell, throwing his rider with great violence, and smashing his 
head against some stones on the side of the way. He was- 
killed on the spot. A Mr. Gr. was, about the same time, 
killed by Negoes, in revenge for injuries he had inflicted upon 
them. At least, it was supposed that some of the slaves on 



THE HELL-FIRE CLTJB. 133 

the estate of which he was overseer were the murderers, 
though the real culprits could never be discovered. He was 
very severe and cruel in his management of the property- 
entrusted to his care, inflicting frequent and heavy punish 
ments ; and he wrought the people very hard, so that gene 
rally more Negroes died off where he was overseer than on 
any of the plantations around. He was one of the old 
school planters, who lived in the time of the slave trade, and 
thought it more profitable to get all the work he could out 
of the Africans, and supply the waste by purchasing others 
from the slave-ships, than to treat them more kindly, and allow 
the slave population on the estate to increase in the natural 
way. After the slave trade was abolished he continued the 
same cruel system of management ; and the consequence was 
that, although he made large crops, yet the estates suffered 
so much in his hands by the loss of slaves, who could not 
now be replaced as before, that he had very often to change 
his situation. He had a fierce set of Negroes to deal with 
on the estate he was then managing, many of them being of 
the Coromantee race ; and few persons were surprised, though 
many were shocked, when it became known that he had 
been waylaid by a party of Negroes, on his return home late 
at night, and chopped to pieces. His Negro boy was with 
him, riding a little distance behind, when the assassins, all 
entirely naked, set upon the unfortunate man in the dark. 
The boy fled upon his mule, no attempt being made to 
intercept him, and left his master to his fate. And a 
dreadful fate it was ; for he was found by those who went 
in search of him hewed in fragments with cutlasses, and 
those who did it kept their own counsel so well that they 
were never discovered. Another of those who joined in the 
toast was supposed to have been murdered. He was 
poisoned, and died in great agony. He was a Mr. S., in 
mercantile life, carrying on business as a general storekeeper. 
He had cast aside a Quadroon woman who had been his 
housekeeper for some years, and was the mother of several 
of his children, and had put another woman in her place. 
A proceeding of this kind has cost many a man his life in this 



134 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

country. Many of the old Africans possessed a knowledge- 
of poisonous plants growing within the tropics, with which 
scientific men were not acquainted ; a knowledge often 
turned to dangerous account in Obeah practices, and some 
times resorted to for purposes of revenge. It is very pro 
bable that the cast-off mistress found some means of reaching 
her quondam protector with one of these powerful vegetable 
poisons, but so skilfully and secretly administered that no- 
traces could be discovered of the agency through which the 
deed was accomplished. Another of the party, a Mr. L., 
shot himself. Such, at least, was the conclusion arrived at 
concerning his case; for he was found shot through the 
head, the ball having passed upward through his mouth, 
scattering the brains all around. He also was in business 
as a general dealer, and his affairs were found to be much 
involved and mixed up with many fraudulent transactions. 
He had lived a wild, profligate life, far beyond his means ; 
and, having got hopelessly involved in debt with all whoj 
would trust him, he settled with all his creditors at once by 
means of a pistol-ball. The same day that L. shot himself, 
a Mr T., an intimate friend of his, was killed by the bursting 
of a gun. Both belonged to the infidel club, and both 
were present when the toast was proposed, entering very 
readily into the proposal, while some were disposed to hang 
back. T. had gone out with some friends to shoot wild 
pigeons ; and, the first time he attempted to fire, the weapon 
he carried burst into fragments, one of which was driven 
through the face into his head, inflicting a wound which 
proved mortal in a few hours. Then there was a Mr. B., 
overseer of an estate, who met his death in going home from 
the town. He was a hard drinker, and frequently went 
home intoxicated when he visited the town. On this occa 
sion he had indulged more freely than usual, and, driving 
home in his gig, he ran the wheel of his vehicle upon a 
bank, by which it was overturned: and, falling upon his 
head, his neck was dislocated, and he died upon the spot 
where he fell. The whole of these casualties occurred within 
a very few weeks not more, I believe, than four or five,. 



THE HELL-PIEE CLUB. 135 

and only two of that profane party were l^ffc alive the man 
at whose house the party had assembled, and who was com 
pelled by his drunken companions, under threats of violence 
and death, to go with them in their daring act of profanity, 
and the person who occupied the chair on the occasion, and 
suggested the drinking of the toast. What effect was 
produced upon the mind of the latter by the sad fate which 
overtook his companions in such rapid succession, I cannot 
tell. Many persons who had become acquainted with the 
facts relating to that last meeting of the Hell- Fire Club, and 
the blasphemous orgies that attended it, looked on with 
awe ; for they regarded these casualties which came upon the 
company of blasphemers as the judgments of Almighty God. 
And this feeling was terribly strengthened when, a few 
weeks later, they saw the leader in the act by which God 
was so daringly and wickedly defied, also swept away from 
the midst of the living by a very horrible death." 

My informant then proceeded to relate the particulars- 
connected with the death of this individual, which were of 
such a character as not to admit of their being minutely 
stated here. While on a journey, he received injury from 
the incautious use of a poisonous plant, that produced 
inflammation, gangrene, mortification, and death. The 
death scene of this man was very fearful. To the 
excruciating physical torture he had to endure were added 
the terror and anguish of despair. When his energies were 
prostrated by the agonizing pain which had seized upon 
him, and death stared him in the face, when the world for 
which alone he had lived was fading away, and the dread 
realities of the eternal world were all around him, then how 
eagerly would he have turned to the Blessed One whom he 
had in wanton wickedness blasphemed and defied ! But he 
could not pray. He dared not hope that God would hear 
him now ; and he howled, and raved, and blasphemed God 
in his delirium, until nature was exhausted, and life failed, 
and the wretched soul of the blasphemer passed beyond the 
veil to appear before its Maker. 

" I never heard," my informant said, in reply to a question 



136 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

of mine upon the subject, " that any other meeting of the 
infidel club was held afterwards. I believe some who 
once belonged to it still survive ; but these judgments of the 
Almighty broke up the unholy association, and it became 
extinct. Those who had formed part of the sceptic league 
were too much horrified to have anything more to do with a 
fraternity against which the hand of the Lord had been so 
manifestly lifted up. Not a few who had made a boast of 
infidelity were silenced, if not cured of their scepticism. 
This was the case with the individual who is so recently 
deceased. He was greatly alarmed by the fate of his associates 
in wickedness, and I believe he repented. If ever a man 
prayed earnestly for pardon, I believe he did ; and he became 
a changed man." 

"I think," I replied, "that the fact of his life having 
been lengthened out for so many years after his associates 
were taken away may be justly regarded as an indication 
that he did not pray in vain. When David, through Nathan s 
rebuke, was turned to God again, and made the acknow 
ledgment, * I have sinned, the prophet was commissioned to 
say, The Lord also hath put away thy sin. His conscience 
appears to have been less hardened than theirs, as he was 
only induced to join them in their excess of wickedness 
under prersure ; and it was in consequence of his being 
wrought upon by the sudden death of some of his associates 
that the facts were brought to light. Otherwise, we should 
never have known the full extent of the depravity and 
l)lasphemy which characterized that club of infidel opposers 
of the truth, or the judgments that swept them from the 
earth. If he had not made known what took place at that 
last meeting, when God was so profanely set at nought, the 
destruction that came so rapidly upon the offenders would 
have been looked upon merely as the ordinary casualties of 
colonial life. My mind has been deeply impressed with the 
occurrences of the last few years in the breaking up of the 
Colonial Church Union, which was a conspiracy against 
God and His truth, and the judgments that fell upon so 
many of the chapel destroyers, most of whom have come to 



THE HELL-FIEE CLUB. 137 

a violent and untimely end. I had heard of this Hell- Fire 
Club, and sometimes have seen a reference made to it by 
newspaper correspondents; but I never could succeed in 
gaining any knowledge of its history until now. Nor was I 
aware that it originated in the persecutions to which mis 
sionaries were subjected at Morant Bay, many years ago. 
When I was at Morant Bay, a little while since, I visited the 
dungeon in which the missionaries were imprisoned. The 
whole history is very instructive, and exhibits an impressive 
comment upon the words of the Psalmist concerning those 
who league themselves together in opposition to the cause of 
Christ : Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou 
shalt dash them in pieces like a potter s vessel. Kiss the 
Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way when His 
wrath is kindled but a little. The first part of the quo 
tation receives illustration from the fate which befell the 
clique of blasphemers ; the latter from the sparing mercy 
exercised toward him who repented and humbled himself 
before Goi." 



VIII. 

THE BLACKSMITH S WEDDING. 

THERE is a Power 

Unseen, that rules the illimitable world, 
That guides its motions, from the brightest star 
To the least dust of this sin-tainted mould ; 
While man, who madly deems himself the lord 
Of all, is nought but weakness and dependence. 

THOMSON. 



issues sometimes proceed from very insig- 
Vj\ nificant circumstances, and grand results from un- 
*~) promising beginnings. It was in those days when 
slavery spread its gloomy shadow over the land, that a 
missionary, residing near the western extremity of Jamaica, 
was crossing the island from a southern town to the capital 
of the country situated on the northern shore. He was on 
horseback, and not very superbly mounted for the long and 
fatiguing ride which he had undertaken. The early part of 
his journey lay for some miles across a wide- stretching 
savannah, where the roads are constructed with logs of 
lignum-vitaB and logwood, laid across, and covered over with 
mud thrown up from either side. This, when hardened and 
baked in the burning rays of the tropical sun, makes, in the 
dry weather, a tolerably good pathway for horses and vehicles. 
But in the long rainy seasons it becomes an extended 
quagmire impassable to vehicles of any description, and 
through which the traveller on horseback has to pick his 
way with the utmost care, to avoid the danger of breaking 
the legs of his horse through his stepping into some of the 
deep holes with which the road abounds ; and which are all 
the more perilous as, being filled with water by the daily 
rains, their depth cannot be very readily discerned. 



THE BLACKSMITH S WEDDING. 139 

Threading his way slowly and carefully for more than two 
hours along this difficult road, and often sinking nearly to 
the girths in the treacherous ground, from which the poor 
animal could extricate itself only by a desperate plunge, the 
traveller arrived at the foot of the mountains, bespattered to 
the shoulders with the mud through which for seven weary 
miles he had been urging his toilsome way. Here the road, 
though still rough, became more solid and pleasant to travel, 
tending upward along the rocky mountain side ; its windings- 
opening up to view beautiful valleys overspread with villages, 
and abounding with the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics.. 
Numerous cottage gardens lay spread over the vale, or 
occupied the slopes of the hills ; all of them filled with 
fruit trees of different kinds ; the cocoa-nut, the plantain and 
banana, the star-apple, and all the varieties of the orange, 
grape fruit, lime and shaddock, exhibiting their rich and 
tempting burdens, and discovering the inexhaustible richness 
of a land which, but for the vices and cruelties of man, 
might be an earthly paradise. Slowly he pursues his way ;; 
for he compassionates the poor beast whose powers, by na 
means exuberant, have been largely exhausted in bearing 
him through the heavy roads that cost him so much 
time and toil to traverse. And he does not forget that the 
path before him, for some miles, is a steep ascent, leading 
over the range of hills and mountains which form the great 
back-bone of the island. The sun, now high in the firmament,, 
pours down a full tide of heat ; and it is with a feeling of 
grateful relief that, after climbing the rugged path for several 
miles, he enters an avenue formed by the plume-like branches, 
of the bamboo. These, springing up from either side of the 
road in luxuriant growth, and meeting above at a height of 
twelve or fifteen yards, form an umbrageous arch almost, 
impervious to the rays of the sun, deliciously cool and 
grateful, conveying -to the mind of the wearied, sun-scorched 
traveller a pleasant sense of the meaning of the Scripture- 
metaphor, " the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." 

From this delightful shade, which extends over several 



HO HOMANCB OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

miles, he emerges high up among the hills, to feel again the 
full force of the brilliant tropical heat, through which he 
winds his way until he has accomplished the most fatiguing 
half of his journey. Four hours toil has pretty well ex 
hausted both man and beast ; and he feels desirous of turning 
into one of the habitations near the road to obtain a little 
rest and shelter. His path now lies through a country 
divided into large cattle farms, called pens, with their retinue 
of overseers, book-keepers, drivers, and slaves. At any of 
these, he is well aware, he could call and obtain refreshment 
both for himself and his horse ; for the hospitality of the 
Jamaica planters is proverbial. And although the planters 
almost universally look with an unfriendly eye upon mis 
sionaries, yet even from them would not be withheld, at 
any of the plantations, the hospitality which it is the custom 
freely to accord to all travellers who may request it. But 
he prefers to seek the rest he needs at some more lowly 
habitation. He has an indistinct recollection of an old 
house situated near the road- side, from whence he heard 
the music of the anvil when he passed that way before ; and 
in due time the gateway with its shattered pillars in front 
of the blacksmith s shop gladdens his sight, and holds out the 
promise of at least an hour or two s repose. 

Riding up to the foot of the rickety wooden steps 
which lead up, in front of the smithy, to the blacksmith s 
house above, he addresses himself to a good-looking coloured 
woman, whose age may approach thirty years, and 
whose complexion indicates more of European than African 
blood flowing in her veins. He soon ascertains that he will 
be quite welcome to alight and rest himself there, and that 
there will be no difficulty in obtaining a bundle of Guinea 
grass for his horse and refreshment for himself. Dismounting, 
he commits the weary steed to the care of a lad some nine 
or ten years of age, the son of his coloured hostess, who 
undertakes to rub him down and supply him with grass and 
water ; and then the traveller, after exchanging a word or 
two of greeting with the blacksmith himself, of whose sooty 
visage he has caught a glimpse in approaching the dwelling, 



THE BLACKSMITHS WEDDING. 141 

ascends the stairs. Through a small piazza, or gallery, he 
enters the house, receiving a polite welcome from the woman, 
and a broad earnest stare from two or three little urchins, 
who cling to their mother, each clad in a long loose single 
garment, calculated rather to afford cool comfort in a tropical 
climate, than to meet the requirements of more refined 
society. 

The lower part of the building, which is the blacksmith s 
workshop, is a strong stone erection ; but the upper story is 
of wood, upon which time is doing its work, and reducing it 
rapidly to a state of considerable dilapidation. Having depo 
sited himself upon a broad wooden settle, which does duty as a 
sofa, his valise serving the purpose of a pillow, the wearied 
traveller reclines there very comfortably ; while his good- 
humoured hostess, with bustling, cheerful activity, addresses 
herself to the task of getting breakfast for the stranger. 
A fowl, caught by one of the youngsters, and hastily deca 
pitated, plucked, and dismembered, is, in a short time, hiss 
ing and sputtering in the frying-pan. And, in due time, 
with a good supply of fresh eggs and coffee, and flo \very 
yams and cocoas, (the tanniers of some of the West India 
colonies,) a breakfast is served up sufficient to satisfy the 
keen hunger of the unexpected guest ; the nice, clean table 
cloth, and the well polished, though very common, plates, 
serving to give zest to the welcome meal. 

While occupied in discussing and enjoying the palatable 
viands, his smiling hostess, who has recognised in him one 
of the missionary preachers she has two or three times, with 
others from the surrounding neighbourhood, travelled half a 
dozen leagues to hear, stands by to render whatever service 
her guest may require ; and he enters into conversation with 
her. From her he learns that amongst the slaves belonging to 
the pens and plantations all around there are many who are 
in the habit of going to the Bay, some eighteen miles distant, 
whenever they can get an opportunity of doing so, to attend 
the missionary services and hear the word of life. It is but 
seldom they can undertake the journey, owing to the dis 
tance and the little time that is allowed them to labour for 



142 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

themselves, only one Sabbath in a fortnight. But, above 
all, they are hindered by the persecuting violence of the 
planters, who are sternly opposed to the missionary teaching 
of the slaves, and freely use the cat and the cart-whip to 
curb arid keep down the religious tendencies of the poor 
Negro people under their care. 

His heart burns within him as the woman, with strong 
feelings of sympathy, tells of the cruel floggings many of 
the slaves have been subjected to after going to the Bay 
chapel on the Sunday, and the revolting punishments that 
followed the breaking in of the planters upon the meet 
ings for prayer which some of them have ventured to hold 
in their own houses when the toils of the day were over. 
With the tears moistening her cheeks she speaks especially 
of one poor fellow on the adjoining estate, the buildings of 
which are distinctly visible from the room in which they are 
sitting, as having been fearfully cut up by a truculent, brutal 
overseer, who swears that he will flog the religion out of him 
if he cuts him to pieces in doing so. But the heartless 
tyrant is baffled by the firm, steady endurance of the poor 
slave, who tells him, as the blood streams from his lacerated 
back and shoulders, " Busha may kill me, but me cannot gib 
up praying." Many a time has he been made fast in the 
bilboes, during the whole of Saturday night and Sunday, to 
keep him from going to the Bay. But the very next oppor 
tunity he has, away he trudges through the night on his 
eighteen miles journey, with as many as he can prevail upon 
to accompany him, that he may be at the early morning 
service, held at that hour (six o clock) for the special benefit 
of the slaves dwelling far away, Remaining to the second 
service, in the forenoon, he then returns home, looking for 
the flogging with the horrible cart-whip which he is sure to 
receive on the following morning. From the conversation 
of his hostess the traveller can gather that all this persecu 
tion, on the part of the planters, has had the effect of 
awakening a widespread feeling of sympathy amongst the 
slaves for miles around, and created a powerful interest with 
many in the missionaries and their teachings ; so that the 



THE BLACKSMITH S WEDDING. 143 

people, whenever they can do so, flock in crowds to the early 
Sabbath morning services. It is not difficult to discover 
from the woman s tones and manner that a lively interest in 
the sufferings of the religious slaves, and in the teaching of 
the missionaries, has been awakened in her own breast. 

Turning the conversation upon her own religious condition 
and prospects, he learns that she has never lived within 
sound of a religious teacher s voice ; never heard of Christ 
until she went to hear the missionaries within the last two 
or three years ; and that, ever since, she has thought and 
felt much about God and her soul. No one ever taught 
her to pray ; but she has sometimes tried to call upon God, 
just as she has heard some of the praying slaves when, on two 
or three occasions, she attended their nocturnal meetings. 
Her mother lived with the owner of the estate close at 
hand, who made her free, that her children might also 
be free ; and he built for the mother the house whose roof 
now covered them. When her mother died, she, the only 
child, inherited a life interest in the dwelling and the enclosed 
piece of land which surrounded it. The present possessor of 
the estate had endeavoured to deprive her of her little pos 
session ; but in vain, as her life-interest in the property 
was clearly secured. At her death it would revert to the 
estate. 

In the course of this conversation, which continued long 
after the breakfast was over, the missionary discovered that 
no religious or legal ceremony had sanctioned her union with 
the blacksmith ; and that it was only since she had heard of 
the marriages performed by the missionaries amongst the 
slaves on the plantations around that she had felt any mis 
givings about her own union with the father of her children 
and the propriety of her present mode of life. Further 
discourse on this subject threw light upon the woman s mind, 
and showed her that something was wanting to render the 
union valid and complete ; and she at once expressed her 
wish to be married, if it could be done, as she desired above 
all things to lead a holy life and go to heaven. Assured that 
there was nothing to prevent the marriage taking place, she 



144 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

then inquired how and when it could be done. The mis 
sionary, who was aware that no law relating to marriage had 
ever been placed on the statute book of the colony, where 
unbounded licentiousness was the rule, and marriage a very 
occasional occurrence, and that therefore no legal restrictions 
fctood in the way, told her that she and the blacksmith might 
be married whenever they chose, and there was no reason 
why the matrimonial bond should not be entered into before 
he took his departure, if both the parties were agreed. 

No time better than the present, the woman thought, and 
she promptly disappeared to consult the gentleman in the 
smithy. The ringing sound of the anvil suddenly ceases, 
and up through the single boards, which form at once the 
floor above and the ceiling beneath, is heard the female voice 
setting forth, in eloquent strains, the evils of a course of life 
which God hath not blessed, and urging the propriety of 
doing away the reproach by an immediate marriage, 
which "the parson" upstairs is ready to perform. The 
blacksmith, a quiet, taciturn, industrious artisan, is of a 
similar complexion to that of the lady ; and, like her, free 
from the trammels of slavery. He sees no objection that 
can be urged to the proposal of an immediate marriage ; and 
quickly yields himself up to do whatever may be required of 
him in the matter, under the direction of his more active and 
able partner. 

He is instructed to leave his work, and submit himself to 
a cleansing process, which is by no means superfluous, and 
get into a clean suit of clothes, while she attends to such 
other arrangements as may be requisite. 

After a short consultation with the missionary the 
woman departs to obtain two friends to be present on the 
auspicious occasion, and also to secure the loan of a prayer- 
book, the Morning Service, abridged from the Book of 
Common Prayer, which is in use by the missionaries. James 
M. the slave so often flogged and punished, she knows has 
both hymn-book and prayer-book, as well as a Bible, for he has 
shown them to her ; and as he is now laid up from a " terrible 
beating " received only a day or two ago, she can go and 



THE BLACKSMITH S Y^EDDING. 145 

borrow the book from bim. In tbe course of an bour or so 
she returns with the book, and intimates that the friends she 
went for will soon be on the spot. By the time she has 
donned the clean, humble suit, in which she appears a good- 
looking buxom Quadroon, the invited guests make their 
appearance in holiday trim. Meanwhile the blacksmith has 
got rid of all traces of his smoky trade from his hands and 
face, and presents himself in a coarse linen suit of snowy 
whiteness, the getting up of which does credit to the woman s 
skill as a laundress ; all ready to play the part of bride 
groom in the ceremony so unexpectedly improvised. 
In a short time the mutual vow has been exchanged, the 
hymeneal benediction pronounced, and the parties declared to 
be man and wife. The marriage certificate is made out, 
duly attested by the witnesses. as well as the officiating 
minister, who gives the married pair to understand that on his 
return home the marriage will be duly recorded in the 
marriage register, kept at the mission chapel at the Bay. 

The incidents we have related are linked with important 
results, affecting the unchanging destinies of many souls all 
around that neighbourhood. The missionary declines the 
urgent invitation of the bride to stay, and get some dinner, 
before he continues his journey. With smiling satisfaction 
at the unanticipated events of the day, she offers to get 
dinner ready with all possible expedition, that he may not 
be unduly detained. This, however, he is under the neces 
sity of declining, as the day is now far advanced, and half 
his journey the least laborious half, as it is chiefly down 
hill yet remains to be accomplished. Neither host nor 
hostess will listen to any offer of remuneration for the sub 
stantial breakfast provided for him ; and both warmly invito 
the missionary, when he returns, and whenever he passe 
that way, to make the house his resting-place. 

As the missionary looks abroad from the house, the scene 
spread before his eye all around is one of enchanting 
loveliness. For miles in all directions stretch the " pens," or 
large cattle farms, forming an important part of the pro 
perties or estates of Jamaica, where are bred the fine 

L 



146 EOMA^CE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

horned cattle, horses, and mules, required for carrying 
on the cultivation and manufacture of the sugar planta 
tions. Large fields of luxuriant Guinea grass growing 
ten or twelve feet high; wide-spreading pasture fields of 
common grass all enclosed by stone walls, and thickly 
studded with clumps of cedar or broad leaf, and orange 
trees, to afford shelter to the cattle from the tropical sun, 
present themselves to his admiring gaze. The white 
buildings of these numerous properties, with the clustered 
huts of the slaves, surrounded by innumerable cocoa-nut and 
other fruit trees, give variety and beauty to the landscape. 
Here and there the eye rests upon some giant ceiba or silk- 
cotton tree, whose immense but symmetrical trunk shoots up 
branchless to a height of seventy or eighty feet from the 
midst of ten or a dozen stupendous buttresses, and then 
throws abroad its wide spreading arms clothed with dense 
foliage, covering with its ample shade almost half an 
acre of ground. The landscape is enchanting in its park- 
like scenery and perennial verdure. Bat the soul of the mis 
sionary is stirred within him, as he thinks upon the fact ? 
that amongst the many thousands who live within the range 
of his vision the Maker of all this beauty and grandeur is 
scarcely known, and that the twofold curse of slavery and 
persecution rests upon the few who care for their own souls, 
and dare to call upon His name. 

Suddenly the thought occurs to him, Whence comes the 
suggestion ? May not the strange marriage which has just 
taken place prepare the way for bringing the Gospel of Christ 
to this dark neighbourhood ? The land all around, for miles, 
is included in the large properties whose managers, as one 
man, are combined to oppose the Christian instruction of the 
slaves. But would it not be practicable, if the newly 
married pair will consent to brave the reproach and opposi 
tion that are sure to follow, to have religious services on 
the land placed, for the term of the woman s life, 
beyond the control of the proprietor and authorities of the 
estate of which it has been, and is again at her death to be, 
a part ? Turning to the woman, he inquires, if she would not 



147 

like to have missionary services brought to the neighbour 
hood ; for there are none within eighteen miles. Her face 
becomes radiant with joy at the thought ; and when the 
missionary suggests that their own premises may serve for 
the purpose, both husband and wife yield a cheerful and 
joyous assent. The traveller then joyfully resumes his 
journey, cheered by the persuasion that the Lord has 
directed his footsteps in a way that will lead to the enlargement 
of the work he has at heart, and the salvation of many souls. 

The tidings are soon spread abroad that the missionary is 
coming to preach at the blacksmith s shop at Ramble. 
Hundreds all around are gladdened by the intelligence ; most 
of all the slaves, who have found it so difficult to get to the 
Bay, in order that they might hear about Jesus Christ and 
the way to heaven. Upon some others the effect is different. 
The planters all around are resolved if possible to prevent the 
invasion of their locality by missionaries ; and, one after 
another goes to the blacksmith, some persuading, others 
threatening him with the loss of custom, and even holding 
out threats of a darker kind. Were it not for his wife it is 
possible he might give way to the urgent remonstrances 
addressed to him ; for he as yet has felt but little concern 
about religion and his soul. But she remains immovable : 
since that missionary s visit which led to her marriage, she 
has felt concerning God and her soul s destiny as she never 
did before. She has been conversing with some of the 
praying, converted slaves, and her mind is made up to seek 
religion and flee from the wrath to come. She comes to the 
rescue, standing by her husband s side and vindicating their 
right to do as they please with the property, and to devote 
it to such uses as they see fit during her life-time. 

The appointed Sabbath arrives, and the missionary is 
there, having gone thither on the preceding evening, to be 
ready for an early morning service. A small room, just 
large enough to contain a bedstead, table, and chair, has 
been set apart as a prophet s chamber. The bed linen is 
coarse, but clean and comfortable ; and there the minister is 
to find accommodation whenever he comes to visit the 

L 2 



148 fiOMANCE OF THE MISSION PIELD. 

neighbourhood. Late at night numerous visitors arrive to 
see " the parson," all of whom are slaves from the surround 
ing properties ; and most extravagant are their demonstra 
tions of joy that the Gospel is to be brought into the midst 
of their own homes. It is in the smithy that the services 
are to be held, and many sturdy hands set to work to pre 
pare the place for the occasion. It is a labour of love. 
Cartwheels, and old iron, and the implements of the black 
smith s trade, are all carried outside the buildings. The 
ashes are cleared away from the forge, and the rough floor 
swept clean ; and it is but little short of midnight when the 
preparations are completed. When the cheerful workers 
take their departure, they leave behind them an ample 
supply of fowls, eggs, vegetables, and fruit, which they have 
brought to contribute to the missionary s entertainment. 

Daylight has scarcely dawned when the missionary is 
aroused by voices underneath, and discovers that the 
people are beginning to assemble for the early service. 
Looking through the jalousie window which admits both 
light and air to his room, he can see through the grey 
dawn numerous parties crossing the pastures from 
various directions. All are clothed in the coarse blue cloth 
garments which they receive yearly from their owners, and 
which the keen mountain air at such an early hour of the 
day, and the heavy dew resting upon every thing with 
out, render necessary to these denizens of a sunny clime. 
Men, women, and children are flocking to the place, most 
of them bearing coarse wooden chairs or small benches for 
their own accommodation at the place of prayer. By the 
time the sun is showing himself in a full blaze of glory in 
the east, the missionary has descended from his chamber to 
commence the worship of God. Every corner of the black 
smith s shop is crowded ; bellows, sloping chimney, and 
forge, all occupied by children, whose sooty complexion 
seems to harmonize well with the position they occupy, and 
who gaze with silent amazement upon the strange scene, never 
having before looked upon an assembly gathered to hear 
the preaching of God s truth. All around the building, 



149 

there is a crowd; for the shop contains not more than a 
fourth of the congregation ; and there are five or six 
hundred persons assembled. A short service of ahout an 
hour s duration closes with the hearty Amens of the congrega 
tion, many of whom have now heard a sermon for the first 
time ; and the crowd disperses, hastening homeward to pre 
pare themselves for the two other services, which are to 
follow in the course of the day. Again, in the forenoon and 
afternoon there is a listening multitude, yet larger than 
that which was present at the earlier worship. Nor is the 
word preached in vain. Angels bear the glad tidings to 
heaven of men and women pricked in their hearts ; and 
there is joy in the courts above over repenting sinners. 
Tears of sorrow for sin moisten many sable checks, and tears 
of joy and gladness run down others, because " the joyful 
sound " is brought to their own doors. It is a lovely and a 
lively scene that presents itself during the interval of the 
morning and afternoon worship. Groups of men and women 
gathered under the shade of the orange trees, which thickly 
stud the adjacent pastures, are talking of the things of God, 
or engaged in prayer. Valentine Ward looked upon this 
scene several years later, after having preached his last 
sermon, and finished an eminent career of usefulness, in that 
blacksmith s shop. When he beheld the classes with their 
leaders grouped beneath the trees, he wept as he glorified 
God for what He had wrought amongst those children of 
Africa, pronouncing it to be the most interesting scene that 
had ever greeted his eyes, and the Sabbath spent there the 
happiest of his life. It was the last of his earthly Sabbaths, 
for four days after he was laid in the grave. When he was 
sinking, smitten by yellow fever, in the delirium of death 
his imagination was still occupied with the Sabbath scene 
that had so enchanted him ; and he continued to gaze upon 
it, and to talk of it, until the more glorious realities of 
eternity burst upon his vision, and he passed away to be for 
ever with the Lord. 

For several years the blacksmith s shop continued to be 
used as a place of worship. A long shed was erected by the 



150 KOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

religious slaves of the neighbourhood, along one side of the 
building, and at one end, thatched with cocoa-nut leaves, to 
shelter the worshippers from sun and rain. Lowly as it was, 
it became a centre of light to the neighbourhood. No 
imposing ritual was practised there, and no surpliced priests 
and choirs intoned the prayers and lessons ; but beneath 
that humble roof many souls were born to glory, made 
wise unto salvation by the faithful preaching of the Gospel. 
Many persecuted slaves, who had endured the lash and the 
gyves for the sake of a good conscience, there found comfort 
in their trials, and obtained strength to endure the grinding 
oppression to which they were subjected by hireling over 
seers. These men hated the blacksmith s shop and the reli 
gion taught there, with all who possessed it, because of the 
unexpected checks they now met with in the indulgence of 
an unbridled sensuality. But their opposition and their 
cruelty were in vain. The work of the Lord went on, and 
prospered. Whites, free coloured people, slaves, alike felt the 
power of the truth, and submitted themselves to the Gospel 
yoke, becoming, in doing so, the freemen of the Lord. And 
there, in due time, infantile voices were heard in the songs 
and routine of the Sabbath school, learning to worship and 
serve Him who said, " Suffer the little children to come 
unto Me." 

Gradually the opposition cea=ed. The planters found 
that religion made their servants trustworthy, intelligent, 
and faithful. The proprietor of the estate with which the- 
blacksmith s shop was connected began to look with favour 
able eye upon the services that, at first, he had so bit 
terly opposed. To the surprise of many, he himself sought 
and found the peace of conscience for which, through many 
years, he had yearned with an intensity of longing that only 
a deep consciousness of guilt can produce. For his hands- 
were stained with blood. A dark cloud had been cast over 
his life by the fatal result of a duel with a former friend,, 
arising out of a drunken carouse. His friend had fallen by 
his hand, and was gone, with all his sins upon his head, to- 
face his Maker and his Judge. From the moment he saw 



THE BLACKSMITH S WEDDING. 151 

his ill-fated companion fall dead before his fatal weapon, he 
had known no peace. Gloom settled upon his soul, and he 
scarcely mingled at all with his fellow men. But the peace 
of God, which came to many hearts in that blacksmith s shop, 
came also to him, and dispersed the gloom that had darkened 
his life and prospects. He was enabled by faith to cast his 
blood-guiltiness upon the Saviour, and lifted his head in 
hope. The gift of a suitable site for a Mission station, near 
the blacksmith s premises, was one of the fruits of the gra 
cious change he experienced. A chapel and parsonage, with 
a good and commodious schoolroom, were, in due time, 
erected there. It became the head of a Circuit, bearing the 
name of the venerable man who there performed the last act 
of his Christian ministry. And the Mount Ward station, 
most delightfully situated, stands a centre of light and bless 
ing to the neighbourhood, and is destined, we trust, to be the 
birthplace of many souls in the generations of the future. 



IX. 

IN SLAVERY A HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS. 

WHY should old age escape unnoticed here 
That sacred era to reflection dear ? 

peaceful shore where passion dies away, 
Like the last wave that ripples o er the bay? 
0, if old age were cancelled from our lot, 
Full soon would man deplore the unhallowed blot ! 
Life s busy day would want its tranquil even, 
And earth would lose her stepping-stone to heaven. 

CAROLINE OILMAN. 

,(T>;T/ AVING- just finished the Sabbath morning service, and 
J~]_ attended to some other pastoral duties in the oldest 
vix/3 chapel in the island of Jamaica, a chapel which bears 
the name of the good and zealous Doctor Coke, the founder 
of the Wesleyan missions, the young missionary who has 
officiated, and who has been only two or three years in the 
work, is about to retire from the sanctuary. Before reach 
ing the door lie is accosted by a decently-dressed black 
female, long past the prime of womanhood, with the request 
that he will go and visit a person who is sick. 

" Me come for ax minister if him will find time in de 
afternoon to go and visit a very old woman, who has been 
long time in de society, and is bout pon dying." 

" You say the person is very old ? " 

" Yes, minister. Him de oldest person in de town, and 
bin in de society from de time of Mr. Campbell ; and him 
bin quite old, minister, where him first jine the church." 

"Is she a free person, or a slave ? " 

" Old Moggy bin slave, minister. Him bin come to dis 
country in slave ship bout de time of de great witquake " 

" The great earthquake ! You surely do not mean the 
earthquake that destroyed Port Royal ? " 



IN SLAVERY A HUNDRED AKD F011TY TEARS. 153 

" Yes, minister, -me believe so ; for so me hear dem say. 
Him quite old woman, minister, when for me mammy bin 
one little pickaninny so high, minister," holding her hand 
about two feet and a half frohi the ground, to indicate that 
her mother, at the time alluded to, was a very little girl. 

Having certified himself concerning the locality to which 
the desired visit is to be directed, he dismisses the woman 
with the promise that he will go and gee the sick person 
before the evening service. 

When the afternoon is sufficiently advanced to modify, in 
some measure, the fierce heat of a tropical sun, and enable 
him to thread his way through the streets within the 
shadow of the houses, the young missionary directs his 
footsteps to that part of the city where old Moggy, if 
the account he has received be correct, is passing through 
the closing scenes of a strangely protracted life. After some 
inquiry, he finds the yard which has been described to him. 
On raising the latch, and pushing open the somewhat dilapi 
dated door, he perceives in company with several others, 
adorned, like herself, in broad-brimmed straw hat and 
muslin gown and handkerchief, light, neat, and exquisitely 
clean, the same woman he had conversed with in the earlier 
part of the day. She advances, with a broad smile upon 
her face, to welcome him with the usual salutation, " Glad 
for see minister." The yard is a square open space, per 
taining to a large respectable-looking house in front, the out 
offices of which occupy one side of the square : the opposite 
side and the end being filled with a range of Negro rooms? 
appearing to have been built and fitted with some regard 
to the comfort of those for whose use they were intended. 
Around the door of one of these apartments are sitting upon 
wooden chairs of a very humble description the women 
referred to, who all rise, and curtsey very respectfully to 
the visitor, and greet him with, " How d ye, me minister ? " 
or, " Glad for see minister : " their white glistering teeth con 
trasting pleasantly with the dusky hue of their smiling 
countenances. Preceded by one of these women, who has 
advanced to receive him, he enters the room, which is smal 



EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

but clean and comfortable, and there, on a low bed, supported 
by several pillows, lies the object of his visit. 

She is a Negro woman, greatly shrunken and shrivelled by 
age ; and, but for the eyes, which retain a considerable 
degree of brightness and intelligence, would more resemble 
an unrolled Egyptian mummy than any thing else he can 
think of. She lifts her eyes towards the minister, as he 
advances to the bed-side, with a look of inquiry ; but when 
the woman, stooping near to her, and speaking in a tone 
somewhat raised, says, " Moggy, here is minister come to see 
you," a gleam of gladness passes over the wrinkled features,. 
and she Lfts her withered hand to welcome him. Seating 
himself on a chair, which has been politely handed to him, 
the young missionary proceeds to inquire concerning her 
bodily ailments. " Old and weak, minister," is the reply ;. 
and he finds, on extending his inquiries to those who seem 
to have charge of her, that she exhibits no indications of 
disease, but a general sinking of the vital powers. The 
weary wheels of life, which have been going actively for so 
many years, are now beginning to stand still. He then 
seeks to lead her thoughts to other things, and inquires it 
she knows and feels the love of Christ. " 0, yes ! Massa," 
she replies, as a brighter light kindles in her eyes, and seems 
to suffuse the entire countenance, " Jesus bery precious." 

Although the sounds proceeding from her toothltss mouth 
are weak, and not very intelligible to his unaccustomed ear, 
yet, with the help of those around, who can better understand 
what she endeavours to express, he can gather that she was 
converted to God under the ministry of Mr. Fish, one of 
the earliest missionaries to the colonies ; that she knew Dr. 
Coke, and heard him preach ; and that she was * a very old 
woman when Massa Jesus pardoned her sins, tea old for 
work." Having, to her manifest comfort and joy, spoken cheer 
ing words about that glorious heaven so soon to be her home,, 
and near the very portals of which she is lingering, until the 
Master makes the sign for her to enter, he bows in prayer 
at the bedside of the aged disciple, and takes his departure. 
But he is resolved, if life is spared, to inquire further about 



IN SLAVEKY A HUNDRED AND FORTY YEAR3. 155 

a case which is to him profoundly interesting beyond any 
that has come within the range of his brief experience or 
observation. 

The forenoon of the following day finds the missionary 
again at the bedside of old Moggy, who seems to be little 
changed from the preceding day. The remembrance of his 
former visit has not passed away from her ; for the same 
expression of pleasure passes over her countenance that 
brightened it then, when the same attendant informs her 
that u minister is come to pray with you again." A few 
words about Jesus and His dying love, and a short, earnest 
prayer, lead the thoughts of the old Christian up to God. 
Her faculties seem to brighten up as the remembrance of her 
Saviour s gracious dealings with her, and the glorious future 
that lies before her, passes through her mind; and she gives 
repeated utterance to the expression, " Bless the Lord ! " 

Leading her memory back upon the past, he questions her 
concerning the principal facts of her history, to ascertain, if 
possible, whether she is really of such advanced age as the 
facts before referred to would seem to indicate. That 
she is extremely old her appearance testifies ; and persons 
well advanced in age can only remember Moggy as a very 
old woman when they were very young. Her own account 
of herself has always been that she was brought from 
Africa in a slave ship, and that she was stolen and carried 
off from her parents " when me pickaninny so, minister,"- 
placing her hand so as to indicate the height of a child 
some eight or ten years old. When she arrived in Jamaica^ 
it was four days after the earthquake that destroyed Port 
Koyal, and the people who had escaped from that fearful 
visitation were living in sheds made of cocoa-nut leaves and 
branches of trees on the spot where the city of Kingston 
was afterwards erected. He questions her minutely upon 
all these points, and she affirms that it is all true, and that 
she remembers it well. Carried off by violence from hep 
father and mother, she was taken to the ship, and with 
many others, young and old, brought over the sea to Jamaica. 
They were a long time at sea ; and when the ship came to 



156 EOilANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

land, she saw the ruins of the city which had been partially 
swallowed up, and she was put ashore where the people were 
all living in sheds and tents. The town was built after that 
upon the same spot, and she had lived there ever since. 
She had belonged to several owners, had never been badly 
treated, but had never been made free. When the mission 
aries came, she went to hear the preaching, and " found out 
that she was one great sinner ; and she prayed to Massa 
Jesus, and He made her soul happy, and religion had made 
her happy all the time, and she was now going home to 
Jesus, to be happy for ever." 

Moggy has no idea about the number of years which have 
transpired in connexion with any part of her history. A 
few leading facts are firmly rooted in her memory, and 
these are held with tenacious grasp ; but of the lapse of 
time, measured by months and years, she has no conception. 
Her mind on that subject is a blank. " A long time ago " 
is all she knows about it. She cannot tell how long she has 
been in the church ; but she knew Dr. Coke, and it was 
through Mr. Fish s preaching she was brought to God, and 
made happy, li a long time ago." She does not know how 
many years it is since she was brought to the country as a 
slave; "it was long time ago," and it was "four days after 
de witquake kill all de people at Port Royal." She is quite 
sure of that. She is unable to tell how old she was when 
bad men stole her from her country. " It was long time 
ago ; me pickaninny so ; " endeavouring to describe the 
height of a child some three feeb from the ground. These 
form the great landmarks of her life s history. And while 
thousands of incidents, which, for the time, were fraught with 
interest, have been blotted by the hand of time from her 
recollection, these remain, fixed and ineradicable, until the 
light of eternal day shall fully restore all the forgotten 
memories of the past, and stamp them sources of inexhaust 
ible joy or woe to all eternity. 

It must be so ! Strange and incredible as it may seem, 
there is no jusfc reason to doubt it. There, in that frail, 
shrunken specimen of humanit}^ is one whose memory 



IK SLAVERY A HUNDRED AND FORTY TEARS. 157 

goes back to a period more than one hundred and forty 
years distant, one who has seen the changes and vicis 
situdes of at least one hundred and forty- eight years of 
experience in this world of evil. The great earthquake she 
refers to occurred in 1G92. It is now A.D. 1834 ; and, 
allowing that she was six years of age when she was brought 
a slave to these shores, which she must have been to be- 
able to remember these events so distinctly, she has now 
arrived at the extraordinary age of one hundred and forty- 
eight. Here is one who has passed through the unparal- 
lelled term of more than one hundred and forty years of 
slave life. True, she has always been in kind hands, and 
has always been a domestic servant, well fed and clothed ; 
never, like many others, having her flesh lacerated with the 
cruel whip. But she has been in bondage while nearly five 
generations of men have passed across the stage of life ; and 
now the decree has gone forth that, in a few months^ the 
wrongful system which makes human beings slaves under 
the British flag is to cease for ever. 

But old Moggy will not live to see it. After one hundred 
and forty years and more of slavery she is to go down to the 
grave still a bondwoman. This matters little, however. 
There is no slavery, no oppression, or wrong, in that better 
land she is passing to ; for there is no more curse. No sigh 
ing shall be there. It is the region of unbroken rest and 
peace, where the loving Hand, once pierced for sin, shall 
wipe away the tears from every eye, and all the signs and 
sources of sorrow shall be for ever dried up. There is one of 
whom it may well be said, Is not this a wonderful instance 
of God s longsuffering goodness ? For when more than a 
hundred years of her mortal pilgrimage had passed away,, 
words of Divine mercy fell upon her ear ; light from heaven 
shone into the dark mind, where scarce a ray of intelligence 
had ever beamed before. The fountain of penitence was 
opened in her breast ; and, going with a troubled heart to 
that precious Saviour, of whom now, for the first time in ten 
decades of life, she had heard, she cast her soul upon Him in 
simple, childlike trust, and the guilt accumulating through. 



158 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

a whole century of darkness and sin was, in great mercy, 
rolled away. Filled with peace and joy in believing, a 
heaven of love rising up in her soul, she felt herself 

" A slave redeem d from death and sin, 
A brand pluck d from eternal fire ! " 

With what strange emotions the missionary gazes upon 
the shrivelled, wasted form of old Moggy, retaining but 
little of the semblance of humanity, nought of the grace 
and beauty of the gentler sex ! He adores the riches of 
that grace which stooped to her in extreme old age, and in 
the degradation of slave life, to bring her to the cross, 
dispel the gloom that had long settled upon her spirit, 
and, waking up the moral faculties which had lain dormant 
for a century, make her a happy child of God, and an heir of 
eternal life ! Once and again he repairs to that bedside, to 
pour out his heart in prayer with this wonderful monument 
of saving grace and mercy. But every time he appears 
there it becomes more and more evident that life is ebbing 
out at last, and the close of this lengthened earthly pilgrim 
age is close at hand. It is pleasing to observe the loving care 
with which those about her, bound to her by no ties of 
kindred and blood, but only sisters in the church, minister 
to her age and helplessness, and surround her with cleanli 
ness and comfort ; smoothing the pillow of the dying saint 
with tender Christian sympathy to the end. The end soon 
comes. More and more the vital energies flag, until 
"Jesus" is the only word that is heard to dwell upon her 
withered lips. Even that, at length, is heard no more. 
She is motionless and just slightly breathing when the mis 
sionary kneels for the last time beside her, commending the 
departing spirit to its Saviour. Before another sun gilds 
with its morning splendours the blue mountain tops of the 
land of springs, before the Sabbath has come round, old 
Moggy, probably the oldest human being on the earth, has 
ceased to be numbered among the living has 

" Found the rest we toil to find, 
Landed in the arms of God." 



IN SLAVERY A HUNDRED A5D FORTY YEARS. 159 

Peaceful and gentle was the end of the poor aged slave 
woman. Without a motion or a sound she slowly ceased to 
breathe and live ; and it was only when the withered limbs 
began to stiffen in the icy grasp of death tbat those about 
her were certified that the spirit had passed to its home. 
The same evening for, in the tropics, delay in burying the 
dead out of sight is inadmissible the remains were deposited 
in the old burying ground, to the eastward of the city. 
There a goodly multitude await the fulfilment of Jehovah s 
decree of predestination concerning His saints, when, raised 
from the dust of death to a glorious immortality, they shall 
be " conformed to His image," " fashioned like unto His 
glorious body," "be like Him," the physical with the moral 
and intellectual nature having been redeemed from the curse 
of sin with a price " all price beyond," and, rendered trans- 
cendently perfect, beautiful, and dazzling, " shall shine forth 
as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." 

This remarkable instance of protracted slave life does not 
stand alone. In the " Kingston Chronicle," (Jamaica,) June 
14th, 1819, there appeared the following notice : 

" ROGER HOPE ELLETSON died at the Hope Estate, on 
Monday, the 3 1st of May, aged upwards of one hundred and 
forty years." 

The subject of this notice was generally called Old Hope, 
and was born and died a slave, having, like Old Moggy, 
existed in three centuries, and seen at least four generations 
of men pass across the stage of life. As in the other case, no 
written document or record proved his age ; but he too had 
a remembrance of the great earthquake that destroyed Port 
Royal in 1G92, and caused the founding of the city of 
Kingston. He was then a father, not less than eighteen or 
twenty years of age. In Long s History of Jamaica, 
published in 1774, speaking of the salubrious climate, and 
the frequent longevity of the inhabitants, the historian says : 
" I can remember three white inhabitants, each of whom 
exceeded one hundred years. I know others now living 
beyond nicety : and about five years ago I conversed with a 
Negro man, who remembered perfectly well the great 
earthquake which destroyed Port Royal in 1962 ; and by his 



1GO BOMAXCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

own account he could not have been much under eighteen or 
twenty when that event happened. These persons were not,, 
as in northern countries, decrepit or bed-ridden, but lively, 
and able to stir about, their appetites good, and their faculties 
moderately sound." 

It is generally understood that Old Hope was the Negro- 
man the historian conversed with, who was then nearly one 
hundred years of age, and survived that period forty-five 
years. His extreme age attracted to him the notice 
of Admiral Douglas ; and the intelligence he manifested 
made him a favourite object of the admiral s liberality and 
kindness so long as he remained on the station. 

Old Hope was born a slave at Merryman s Hill, an old sugar 
plantation in the parish of St. Andrew ; but he spent the 
greater parb of his long life on the Hope estate, to which he 
had been sold when young. He had a perfect recollection of 
the terrible shocks of the great convulsion of nature that 
destroyed the capital of the island. He could also remember 
two other remarkable events which took place about the same 
time ; although he failed to recollect the order of their 
occurrence, except that the one was before, and the other 
after, the earthquake. The two events to which his memory 
thus went back in the distant past were a great storm, and 
an abortive attempt on the part of the French to effect a 
landing in the island. The great storm alluded to took 
place in 1689, three years before the earthquake ; and the 
effort of the French to take the colony in 1694, two years 
after that memorable event. He could not tell how long it 
was since he had done any work, but it was a great many 
years ; and a slave named Toney, who died a few years before 
on the same estate, eighty years of age, said, " Old Hope- 
must be twice as old as himself ; as he was an old man too 
old to work when he (Toney) was a pickaninny. 5 Old 
Hope had never been sick, that he could remember ; and he 
never drank rum or any ardent spirit in the course of his- 
life. From first to last he had always had good masters, 
from whom he received much kindness, and he never remem 
bered having been treated with harshness or seventy. 



IS SLAVERY A HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS. 161 

Admiral Douglas had the portrait of this old slave painted, 
for the purpose of taking it to England, believing Old Hope 
to be, as he probably then was, the oldest specimen of the 
human race alive upon the earth. This was in 1817, two 
years before his death. He was then not less than one 
hundred and forty-three years of age; yet he walked to 
Kingston, a distance from the Hope estate of between six 
and seven miles, without any over fatigue, whenever the 
artist required him to sit. 

At length the end of his long earthly pilgrimage came. 
An attack of intermittent fever greatly undermined his 
strength, so that it was with difficulty he could walk to the 
city and back after he recovered from it. But this he did 
two or three times. Through all these years he continued 
ignorant of the Gospel and the great salvation ; and it was 
not until the shadows of the grave were drawing around him, 
that he felt any concern about religion. About two months 
before his death he desired to be " made a Christian ;" and, 
in compliance with his earnest wishes, was taken to the 
parish church to be baptized on Easter Sunday, April llth ; 
this being the only idea those about him had of making him 
a Christian. That the Spirit of God was, however, working 
upon his mind and heart, was evident from the fact that, as 
he drew near to his end, those around him heard him engaged 
frequently in earnest prayer, though they could not always 
distinctly make out what he said. Living away from the 
city, and in the bondage of slave life, he had had but few 
opportunities of coming to the light of saving truth. But 
that some scattered rays had reached him, and penetrated his 
mind, may justly be inferred from the earnest prayers which 
he offered up during the few weeks preceding his removal to 
another world. And may we not hope that He who heard 
the prayers of Cornelius before the glorious light of the 
Gospel came in contact with his mind, and who requires of 
men according to that which they have, and not according 
to that they have not, responded in saving mercy to 
the sincere but ignorant petitions of the aged unlettered 
slave ? Different, very different, however, were the death-be,! 

M 



162 BOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

prospects of old Moggy, who for many years had enjoyed the 
rich consolations of the Gospel, and rejoiced in the unclouded 
hope of eternal life. 

Old Hope never left the Estate after he returned from 
being baptized, but during seven weeks his strength 
gradually declined, till at length the weary wheels of life 
stood still on Whit Monday, May 31st, and the spirit that, for 
nearly a century and a half, had inhabited the shrivelled 
tabernacle of clay, passed to its destiny. His age was made 
out to be one hundred and forty-five. Eighteen years old 
when the earthquake occurred in 1692, which was the great 
landmark of his life, he survived to 1819. 



X. 

THE RENDEZVOUS OF THE BUCCANEERS. 

LEAGUED with rapacious rovers of the main, 

Haiti s barbarian hunters harass d Spain ; 

A mammoth race, invincible in might, 

Rapine and massacre their grim delight, 

Peril their element : o er land and flood 

They carried fire, and quench d the flames with blood ; 

Despairing captives hail d them from the coasts ; 

They rush d to conquest, led by Charib ghosts. 

MONTGOMERY. 

fHE preceding sketch describes two remarkable cases of 
longevity, both of them relating to individuals who 
were held in slavery through fourteen decades of 
human life, the age in both instances being determined by the 
memory of a great and overwhelming catastrophe, which 
few who witnessed it could ever forget while they were 
capable of remembering anything. With regard to the 
aged disciple of Christ who, after a pilgrimage of one hundred 
and forty-eight years duration passed away from the world, 
in peace with God, and in joyful hope of being with Him for 
ever, the calamitous event determining her age marked a 
new era in her chequered life by fixing indelibly the period 
of her arrival as a slave upon a foreign shore. It marked a 
new era also in the history of the colony, inasmuch as it 
caused the seat of government to be transferred to a new 
locality, and gave rise to the city which from that time has 
been the mercantile capital of the island. By this appal 
ling visitation the capital town, with all the government 
buildings, the public records of the colony, and most of the 
public and official men, was suddenly swept away and 
swallowed up. It was one of the most remarkable convul 
sions of nature of which any record has been made. 

M 2 



164 ROMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

The present town of Port Royal for the town was not so 
entirely destroyed as not to admit of being rebuilt on a 
smaller scale occupies a singular position on the south side 
of Jamaica. About six or seven miles eastward of the city of 
Kingston, a narrow tongue of land stretches out from the 
main shore, sloping off at first in a south-westerly direction,, 
and then running nearly parallel with the southern coast 
for nine or ten miles. This peninsula, known as * The 
Palisades, encloses a fine sheet of water from two to three 
miles in width, and forms a natural breakwater to one of 
the finest harbours in the world, large enough to afford 
anchorage for all the navies of Europe and America. It is 
very possible that the space occupied by this expanse of 
water was once solid ground, and has been made what it 
now is by the sinking of the land, through one of those 
natural convulsions which occasionally work such great 
changes in this part of the world. 

Some six or eight miles westward of Kingston the main 
coast makes a sudden curve, and stretches boldly out in a 
southern direction for some miles, forming at the southern ex 
tremity what is known as Portland Point, and there exhibiting 
a bold rocky coast with an eastern aspect, upon the heights of 
which may be seen "the Battery of the Twelve Apostles." 
Further in, low clown upon a marshy shore, is the strong 
military station of Fort Augusta, whose powerful batteries 
completely command the channel by which alone vessels of 
large tonnage can approach Kingston. Eight opposite, 
to the east of the Apostles Battery, across a channel about 
four miles wide, is the town of Port Eoyal, situated at the 
extreme point of the tongue of land we have described, and 
almost surrounded by the sea. Around this point, frowning 
with powerful batteries, all vessels have to pass into King 
ston harbour. The sharp captain that would slip off to sea 
without paying harbour dues, finds it a difficult matter to- 
accomplish. " The pass," which is necessary to clear his way, 
must be lodged with the proper official at Port Eoyal, 
before his ship can be permitted to thread the intricate 
navigation which guards the approach to Port Boyal Point^ 



THE RENDEZVOUS OF THE BUCCANEEES. 165 

where it would be no difficult matter to sink a vessel 
in a very few minutes with the massive artillery that crowns 
the point in all directions. 

The tongue of land on which Port Koyal stands is a 
bank of loose sand, resting upon the solid rocks far down 
beneath the surface of the waters. It is for some miles 
partly covered with stunted mangrove bushes. Half a mile 
to the eastward of the town, three or four half blighted 
sickly-looking cocoa-nut trees mark the spot which is the 
burying place of the inhabitants. The coffins are deposited 
in such holes as can be scooped out in the loose sand ; and 
being seldom sunk much below the surface, because of the 
shifting character of the ground, are sometimes, after the 
prevalence of strong winds which blow away the sand, left 
altogether bare and exposed, and the festering remains of 
mortality they have enclosed are rendered accessible to prowl 
ing birds of prey. Multitudes of sailors and officers of the 
British navy, and not a few officers and men belonging to 
the military service, cut down suddenly by the deadly fever 
familiarly known as " Yellow Jack," have found their last 
resting place here. Both in the army and navy the 
Palisades of Jamaica are associated only with saddening 
thoughts of disease and death. 

Port Koyal is the principal British naval station in the 
West Indies, and was in this respect much more important 
than it now is, before the head quarters for the West India 
squadron were transferred to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It 
possesses an extensive dockyard, with massive stone build 
ings, and all the machinery and paraphernalia necessary for 
heaving down vessels of the largest class. It has also a 
very commodious and handsome naval hospital ; where 
every thing is maintained in the high state of perfection 
essential to such an institution. It possesses large ranges 
of batteries, and also extensive barracks for a considerable 
military force. The population of the town now consists 
largely of employes in connexion with the naval and 
military establishments, with a few tradesmen, dealers in 
provisions, and lodging-house keepers, who furnish accom- 



166 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

modation to persons resorting thither for a sanitary 
change. There are no manufactures of any kind; nor is 
there any cultivation of the soil beyond the growth of 
a few stunted shrubs and plants, for the whole is a bed of 
sand. There is no road extending beyond the narrow limits 
of the town ; the only access to the place being by boats, in 
which provisions of all kinds are brought, chiefly from 
Kingston. There are no springs ; the inhabitants are sup 
plied with water brought in sailing water tanks from Rock- 
fort, a distance of eight or nine miles. An Episcopal 
church and a Baptist place of worship furnish opportunity 
for the religious instruction of the people, together with a 
Wesleyan chapel and Mission house, occupied by a resident 
minister as one of the outstations of the Kingston circuit, 
and this has been the birthplace of many souls. 

It was in the time of Cromwell that Penn and Venables 
both treacherous to the ruler who trusted them, after 
failing in the attack upon San Domingo, seized upon 
Jamaica, and wrested it from the hands of the Spaniards, that 
the expedition they commanded might not return under 
the disgrace of having accomplished nothing. Then it was 
that Port Royal, because of its situation and capabilities for 
defence, became the capital of the British colony. Here 
situated like ancient Tyre, in a position of commanding 
maritime strength and importance, it became, like her, the 
seat of wealth and power, and the mercantile rendezvous and 
emporium for the New World. Buildings suitable for all 
government purposes were erected in the sea-girt town, and 
the governor and all the government officials took up their 
abode here. It also became the head quarters both of the 
army and navy, and here were established the principal 
courts of law. 

But that which raised Port Royal to great importance, 
and made it the depository of enormous wealth, was that, from 
its situation, so easy of access from the sea, it became the 
favoured resort of the buccaneers whose piratical plundering 
exploits formed the theme of- many a romantic tale, and 
made them the terror and the wonder of the New World. 






THE BENDEZVOUS OE THE BUCCANEERS. 1G7 

This formidable association of freebooters was called at first 
* Brethren of the Coast ; " but afterwards they became better 
known under the designation of Buccaneers or Boucaniers. 
Occupying extensive hunting grounds in Hispaniola, other 
wise called San Domingo, and in more recent times Haiti, 
they hunted the immense herds of cattle with which the 
wide spreading savannahs of that magnificent island 
abounded, and also the wild hogs which existed there in 
great numbers. For the skins of the slaughtered animals 
they obtained a ready market ; and the flesh both of beeves 
and swine they preserved by drying and smoking them in 
sheds called by the Indians loucans. The flesh thus prepared 
was said to be boucanee : and hence the title which became 
so famous and so terrible to the Spaniards. 

The buccaneers were of different nations, but consisted 
largely of English ; men of desperate character and 
courage, who were rendered more reckless and ferocious by 
arrogant claims and proceedings on the part of the Spaniards. 
Eesting pretensions upon the presumptuous Bull of Pope 
Alexander the Sixth, who assumed the right, as God s 
vicegerent upon earth, to dispose at his pleasure of all the 
islands and countries that might be discovered in the New 
"World, Spain made an exclusive claim to those beautiful 
"Western Isles as their mistress and owner. In asserting this 
claim the Spaniards sought to expel and get rid of the 
buccaneers by the same atrocious system of extermination 
which had been practised towards the aboriginal Indians, 
murdering and destroying them wherever they met with 
them. This attempt recoiled with terrible effect upon them 
selves. Treated as outlaws and pirates, the buccaneers 
took up arms in self-defence, and formed amongst them 
selves a formidable and singular combination, possessing all 
things in common, and maintaining an inviolable fidelfity 
towards each other, not always to be found in a more 
civilized condition of life. They became a terrible scourge 
to the Spaniards, spreading themselves over all the western 
seas, and capturing every Spanish vessel they could fall in 
with. They invaded and plundered the Spanish settlement 



168 BOMAffCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

in the islands and on the continent, until their very name 
became a terror ; and no Spaniard felt that he was safe in 
any part of the New World from the spirit of desperate 
enterprise which possessed these formidable adventurers. 

The buccaneers had their settlements in various parts of 
the West Indies ; and the traveller who enters the land 
locked harbour of St. Thomas looks up from the deck of the 
vessel to a ruined tower, crowning the summit of one of the 
three pyramidal hills on which the town is built, which is 
still known as the Buccaneers Tower. But Port Eoyal 
became the grand rendezvous of these freebooters of the 
Carribbean Sea, After waging a sort of piratical war for 
some years with the Spaniards on their own independent 
footing, in the reign of the second Charles the buccaneers 
were formally licensed as privateers. Under Morgan, their 
distinguished chieftain, who was afterwards made an 
admiral and a member of the privy council of Jamaica, they 
performed prodigies of valour. As Sir Henry Morgan, 
Knight, this reckless leader of the buccaneer forces was 
appointed to succeed Lord Carlisle as governor of the island; and 
the colony was enriched by his followers to an enormous ex 
tent, especially by the sacking of Panama and Portobello, two 
of the wealthiest of the Spanish settlements in the New World. 

The wealth poured into Port Eoyal by the buccaneers was 
incalculable. They intercepted all vessels that traversed 
those seas, and every Spanish ship was a rich prize. If going 
to the ports of the Indies, they were found to be stored with 
the choicest productions and manufactures of the home 
country, the glass of St. Ildefonso, the silks and serges of 
Valencia, the porcelain of Alcora, the platillas and cordage of 
Carthagena > the peculiar soap of Castille, the cutlery of 
Toledo, the fine wool of Spain s merino sheep, with the wine 
arid oil and almonds and raisins produced by Spain in 
common with Italy and the Greek islands. If they were 
returning home to Europe, the Spanish galleons were loaded 
with ingots of gold and silver. The disposal of these 
buccaneers prizes, which were very numerous, made a golden 
harvest for the wholesale merchant ; while the riot and 



THE BENDEZVOTJS OP THE BUCCANEERS. 1G9 

revelry of the sailors, spending with reckless prodigality 
their share of the plunder, enriched the retailers, and the 
traffic of this renowned mart laid the foundation of dowries 
for duchesses and endowments for earldoms. " If ever there 
was a hope anywhere," says one of Jamaica s most intellectual 
sons, Eichard Hill, Esq., " of realizing the traveller s 
El Dorado, where the gold grew and was to be had for the 
gathering, where urchins played at cherry-pit with diamonds, 
and country wenches threaded rubies for necklaces instead of 
rowan-tree berries, where the pantiles were of pure gold, 
and the paving stones of virgin silver, it was the Port Royal 
of the buccaneers." 

But as it rose in opulence, Port Royal sank into vice and 
wickedness. Rendered profligate by superabundance, and 
reckless by habitual violence, the buccaneers gathered around 
them all the worst elements of corruption and depravity. 
The inhabitants, vitiated by boundless wealth and luxury, 
fell into a state of moral debasement not to be described, 
until vice and immorality of all kinds became rampant, as in 
the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, defying, while it provoked, 
the vengeance of a just and holy God. At this time there 
was not perhaps so wealthy or so wicked a spot upon the face 
of the earth. Ungodliness in all its forms, crime in all its 
developments, abounded; when, as in the case of Sodom, the 
uplifted arm of vengeance fell upon it, blotting it, with its 
excess of wealth and wickedness, from the map of existence, 
an-d proclaiming to all generations, " Verily, there is a God 
that judgeth in the earth ! " 

It is the morning of a lovely day in June. The blue 
tropical sky is clear and cloudless, a scene of perfect beauty, 
reflected in the gently rolling waters of the Caribbean Sea. 
The glittering white sail, barely visible in the distance, 
marks here and there a ship bound to some western port, to 
discharge the rich cargo with which she has crossed the 
Atlantic basin, or running before the trade winds to pass 
through the Gulf of Mexico, where, although the wondrous 
attributes of the Gulf Stream are as yet not dreamt of, it is 



170 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

well known there are strong currents that help the mariner 
on his homeward way. But the air is hot and sultry- 
Although the sun has nearly reached the meridian, no refresh 
ing sea-breeze has, through the forenoon, rippled the slowly 
heaving surfaceof the ocean, whose waters, smooth and unbroken 
asa sheltered lake,seem toglisten fiercely as, like a silvered mir 
ror, they throw back the fervid rays of the glowing orb which 
pours a burning heat upon every thing around. The leaves 
of the cocoa-nut palm, that wave to and fro with a grace 
fulness all their own when the cool gentle breezes from the sea 
set them in motion,now droop in perfect stillness, as if, under 
some powerful enchantment, they had been suddenly divested 
of all elasticity and life. The dogs, as they lazily creep into 
the very narrow strips of shadow cast from the houses 
beneath a nearly vertical sun, let their tongues hang from 
their mouths, as if they had not sufficient strength remaining 
to draw them in again. Goats, ordinarily so indifferent to 
the heat, repair to the grateful shade of any cocoa-nut tree or 
shrub that holds out the promise of protection from the 
scorching, glaring sunshine. Ladies in their dwellings, so 
planned as to admit of the most perfect ventilation, and 
with every door and window thrown wide open, sink down 
into the coolest spot, enervated and overcome by the heat. 
The sterner sex, stretched out at full length in the grass 
hammocks of Indian manufacture, or lounging in easy 
chairs, beneath the shade of the piazza, gasp for air, or else 
seek relief and coolness in the large rummer of Sangaree, or 
the glass of punch skilfully compounded, as taste may 
suggest, from the well-replenished spirit decanter on the one 
hand, and on the other from the large jug of well-spiced and 
sugared limejuice beverage which is always placed upon the 
sideboard shortly before midday. But they seek for it in 
vain. Notwithstanding these potent remedies they pant 
for air, and feel the atmosphere to be intolerably oppressive. 
Even Quashie and Quamina, Jupiter and Venus, upon whom, 
as the slaves of the several establishments, devolve the 
activity of their respective households, and who seem to be 
gifted largely with the fabled properties of the salamander, feel 



THE BEKDEZVOUS OF THE BUCCA1OEB8. 171 

the heat to be somewhat inconvenient, and exclaim, as they 
meeb one another in the houses, stores, or streets, " Him bery 
hot, for true." All natureseems to languish in utter stagnation. 
Worried out of life by the perverse, impracticable men 
he has had to deal with, and the difficulties of his position, the 
governor, the Earl of Inchiquin, has recently been consigned 
to the quiet of the grave ; and the administration of the 
government has consequently devolved upon the president 
of the council, Sir Francis Watson. This gentleman is 
seated under the shade of a wide-spreading piazza, in com 
pany with the rector of the town ; and they agree together 
that it will be a very good thing to seek relief from the 
overpowering heat that oppresses them in the discussion of 
a glass of wormwood wine, as a whet to the appetite before 
dinner, and a pipe of tobacco. Little does the unfortunate 
president dream that the glass of wormwood wine he invites- 
the rector to share with him will be the last taste of refresh^ 
raent that is ever to pass his lips ; that the pipe, from which 
he is puffing away clouds of smoke with so much enjoyment, 
is the last that shall ever be lighted by him. Yet so it is. 

It is well we are not permitted to see far into our own 
future, or how much of life s enjoyment would be marred! 
While the cloud rising up from the pipes of the two loungers 
is slowly curling around their heads, for there is no breath 
of wind to scatter and bear it away, and the dial indicates 
that in twenty minutes the sun will be in his meridian 
glory, the smokers become sensible of a gentle, tremulous, 
motion beneath their feet. Their smoking is arrested, and 
the pipes are involuntarily drawn from their mouths* 
Immediately a more violent shock takes place, accompanied 
with the hollow, rolling noise so familiar to those who 
inhabit those western isles, and resembling the sound of a 
heavy waggon passing over a roughly paved road. The 
pipes drop from their hands, as they rise alarmed from their 
seats. " Sir," says the rector, " what is that ? " More self- 
possessed than his companion, the president replies, " It is an 
earthquake ; don t be afraid ; it will soon be over." But it 
is not destined to be so. Those are the last words to fall 



172 BOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

from his lips. He is never seen again ; never heard of more 
in connexionwith the earth. The rector, as soon as these words 
are spoken, and he realizes the idea of the calamity that is 
coming upon them, rushes at once out of the piazza, and 
makes his way towards an open space near Morgan s Fort, 
to escape from the danger of the falling houses, which he 
now sees crumbling into heaps of ruin in all directions. 
For a third shock has succeeded, far more violent than the 
preceding ones, shaking down buildings of all sizes, and 
burying multitudes, crushed out of all semblance to 
humanity, under the crumbling masses of stones and bricks 
and timber and rubbish which have fallen upon them. 

Earthquakes are amongst the most appalling of those 
destructive visitations to which men are liable. They come 
so suddenly, and are ofttimes so terribly fraught with wide 
spread ruin and death, from which there is no possibility of 
escape. No sign, no sound, heralds the approach of the 
dread enemy. The earth is reeling ; houses and buildings 
all around are tottering and tumbling, and hundreds of souls 
are halfway to eternity before they realize the idea that the 
loud rumbling which fills the air, and which they have mis 
taken for that of a passing vehicle, is the fatal bellowing of 
the earthquake. More than once has the writer had his pen 
arrested at his desk, or been suddenly wakened up in the 
darkness and silence of the night, by the ominous sound, to 
perceive the ground trembling or waving to and fro, the 
windows and the furniture rattling, and the house shaking 
or undulating as if some giant grasp were laid upon it ; and 
to feel the irresistible conviction rushing upon his mind that 
danger, great and terrible, is impending close at hand, 
which, before a place of safety can be reached, may close in, 
bringing upon all around inevitable ruin and death. 

So it is with the inhabitants of the devoted town. In a 
moment the destruction, unthought-of, unavoidable, comes ! 
First, a slight trembling of the earth for a few seconds, 
which becomes more and more violent, until everything is 
shuddering and reeling. A loud, mysterious roar, seeming 
to proceed from the distant mountains, is heard, rolling 



THE BENDEZVOUS OF THE BUCCANEERS. 173 

onward, paralysing the energies of all. And, before many 
have realized the idea that it is the earthquake, the greatest 
part of the town has crumbled and fallen. The receptacle 
of so much wealth, the scene of such abounding wickedness, 
sinks into the sea, and thousands of the inhabitants instantly 
disappear, literally swallowed up. The wharves, piled high 
with spoil and merchandise, are engulfed instantaneously ; 
and water stands some fathoms deep where, a few moments 
ago, the crowded streets displayed the glittering treasures 
of Mexico and Peru. 

The rector, leaving his boon companion, the president, to 
his fate, gains the open space near at hand, and is saved. 
But what appalling scenes present themselves to his view ! 
The ground is rolling and trembling under his feet, but it 
does not sink from beneath him. Close at hand, however, 
he sees the earth open, and swallow up a multitude of people 
of all classes, who, terror-stricken, are rushing hither and 
thither, not knowing where to fly for safety. Houses, 
stores, and wharves, the Government buildings and barracks, 
all sink before his eyes, far down into the deep ; and the 
sea, mounting in upon them in a vast tidal wave, comes rush 
ing with stupendous sweep over the fortifications. The 
church and the large burial ground disappear in a moment 
beneath the waters, while coffins and carcases, in all stages 
of decay, which have been deposited in the loose sand, float 
to the surface, adding to the ghastliness and terror of the 
scene. 

Shock follows shock in rapid succession. The air is filled 
with screams of anguish and cries of horror, mingled with, 
and partly drowned by, the rush of waters, and the crash of 
thousands of falling edifices. Large fissures open in the 
earth, and then, by other shocks, are closed again, burying 
some persons alive altogether, and leaving others, maimed 
and crushed and partially buried, with their heads and limbs 
appearing above ground, for dogs and birds of prey to feed 
upon. In the openings of the earth the houses and the 
inhabitants sink down together ; and some of the latter are 
driven up again by the rushing in of the sea, and marvel- 



174 BOHANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

lously escape with life. This is the case with a French 
gentleman, named Lewis Galdy, who is swallowed up, 
engulfed with house and property, by one shock of the 
earthquake, and, by another shock that quickly follows, is 
thrown up, alive and uninjured, into the sea. Being rescued 
by a boat, he lives for many years to adore the gracious Pro 
vidence that so wonderfully delivered him from a sudden and 
painful death.* The sea, as well as the land, feels the throes 
of this great convulsion of nature ; and the water, which, in 
the absence of every breath of wind, has been all the morn 
ing smooth as glass, becomes suddenly and violently agi 
tated, as if moved by a mighty storm. Thrown up into 
vast billows, which rise and fall with unaccountable violence, 
it drives many ships, with broken cables, from their anchor 
age. The " Swan " frigate, with all her heavy guns, borne 
over the tops of the sunken houses, is left high and dry 
upon the land, in the midst of the ruins, affording a provi- 

* This gentleman, after the catastrophe, became a member of the 
local legislature, and lived for forty-four years after his wonderful 
deliverance. Dying at the advanced age of eighty, he was buried at 
Green Bay, opposite to Port Royal, at a short distance from the 
Apostles Battery. In 1844 the writer visited the spot, and found 
the tomb, built of brick and covered with a slab of white marble, on 
which was sculptured a shield bearing a cock, two stars, and a cres 
cent, with the motto, " Dieu sur tout." Underneath was the follow 
ing inscription, distinctly legible: "Here lies the body of Lewis 
Galdy, Esquire, who departed this life at Port Royal, the 22nd 
December, 1736, aged eighty years. He was born at Montpellier, in 
France ; but left that country for his religion, and came to settle in 
this island, where he was swallowed up in the great earthquake, ii? 
the year 1692, and, by the providence of God, was, by another shock, 
thrown into the sea, and miraculously saved by swimming until 
a boat took him up. He lived many years after in great reputation, 
beloved by all who knew him, and much lamented at his death." 
Fragments of the marble had been chipped from the slab by visit 
ors. And when the writer paid a second visit to the burial place 
with his two daughters, in April, 1867, he was not greatly surprised 
to find that the tomb had been entirely demolished ; and only just 
enough of the brick foundation remained to mark the spot, and show 
the size and shape of the structure that had covered Mr. Galdy 
xemains 



THE RENDEZVOUS OF TEE BTTCCANEEBS. 175 

dential refuge to many unfortunate persons who, saved 
themselves where such a multitude have perished, have been 
stripped in a moment of all they possessed, and left without 
even a shelter. 

So wide spread is the desolation, that only about two 
hundred houses, with one fort, are left, in a shattered and 
dismantled condition, where in the morning of that day stood 
in its pride the wealthy, gay, and busy city. Together with 
its enormous piles of precious merchandise, ingots of gold, 
barrels of pistoles and doubloons, and tierces of silver, 
common almost as the sand in the streets, the city that 
trafficked in violence has sunk and disappeared in the depths 
of the sea ; leaving the impoverished survivors to take 
up the lamentation for her that was uttered over ancient 
Tvre : " How art thou destroyed that wast inhabited of 
seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in 
the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to 
be on all that haunt it ! " (Ezekiel xxvi. 17.) The ruins are 
still visible from the surface of the waters under which 
they lie ; and buoys, placed above, still mark the spot, and 
admonish mariners that they may not drop their anchors 
there, lest they become inextricably entangled amid the 
stones, and brickwork, and massive timbers engulfed and 
swallowed up by the greedy sea. 

Terrible has been the destruction of human life. Fifteen 
hundred persons of note, including the president administer 
ing the government, members of both branches of the 
legislature, officers of the government, judges, merchants, 
nearly all the principal men of the island, by one fell swoop 
have disappeared, with thousands upon thousands of sailors, 
soldiers, artisans, and slaves. All in the morning of that bright 
sunny day were full of lusty life, little thinking of death or 
danger. The setting sun shines upon the waves, where, far 
down below, they lie slumbering in a watery grave. Not a 
public building remains ; and all the public records and 
official papers of the colony have perished, with those who 
had the care of them. 

Nor is the devastation confined to the principal city of 



176 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

the island. There, owing to the peculiar position and forma 
tion of the place, the ruin and destruction have been greatest ; 
but all over the island the earthquake has left the sad traces 
of its terrible power. The rocks on the opposite shore, near 
to Port Henderson and the Apostles Battery, have been 
rent into enormous caverns and fissures, from whence 
sulphurous steam is seen to gush for several days. The 
town of St. Jago de la Vega, founded, like Port Boyal, by 
the Spaniards, is well nigh destroyed. The well compacted 
houses, built by Spanish skill, with a view to earthquake 
visitations, are split and rent in all directions ; while those 
of more recent and less careful structure have crumbled into 
heaps, burying, in many instances, the unfortunate inhabi 
tants beneath them. So it is all over the island. The 
buildings on the plantations are shaken down ; and hundreds, 
crushed under the ruins of their habitations, have found 
their graves in their own dwellings. The whole face of the 
country is changed, stupendous mountains being upheaved 
from their foundations, and tossed about in wild confusion. 
There is scarcely a mountain in the island that has not been 
altered in its outline ; while the rivers, too, have changed 
their courses. On the principal road through the island two 
mountains have been lifted up and thrown together, stopping 
up the bed of the river with huge masses of disjointed rock, 
until the waters, collected in great force, and raised to an 
overwhelming height, burst their adamantine barrier, and, 
bearing all before them, force open a new passage for 
themselves, increasing, in their destructive sweep, the horrors 
which already abound. 

These are but the beginning of sorrows to the guilty 
land. One of the historians of the West Indies says, 
" The tremendous convulsions were repeated with little inter 
mission, though with decreasing violence, for the space of 
three weeks ; and every fissure in the rocks, every cleft in 
the cracked and parching earth, was steaming with sulphur 
ous fumes. The air reeked with noxious miasmata, and the 
sea exhaled an offensive, putrid vapour, which destroyed a 
great proportion of those destitute and wretched beings 



THE RENDEZVOUS OF THE BUCCANEERS. 177 

whom the convulsion itself had spared. No fewer than three 
thousand were the victims of this dreadful endemic ; and 
the few surviving inhabitants of Port Royal, who sought a 
refuge in temporary huts where Kingston now stands, were 
yet within reach of the contagious cause: for the dead 
bodies still floated in shoals about the harbour, and added 
horror to a scene which the pencil could not delineate, 
much less the pen describe. The insupportable heat of a 
tropical midsummer was not for many weeks refreshed even 
by a partial breath of air ; the sky blazed with irresistible 
fierceness, swarms of mosquitoes clouded the atmosphere ; 
while the lively beauty of the mountain forests suddenly 
vanished, and the fresh verdure of the lowland scenery was 
changed to the russet grey of a northern winter. The cane 
fields were disfigured by masses of fallen rock, and presented 
to the eye a barren wilderness, parched and furrowed. Thus 
vanished the glory of the most flourishing emporium of the 
New World, by a succession of tremendous judgments, 
resembling those visitations of an offended Deity on some 
cities in the Old World, where an iniquitous race was over 
whelmed in sudden and unexpected ruin. Large sums of 
money, arising from the treasures of unknown or lost 
proprietors, fell into the hands of many individuals, and 
amongst others into those of Sir William Preston, who was 
charged by the assembly, ten years afterwards, with having 
appropriated a considerable share to his own use. One loss 
was irrecoverable, and is still severely felt : that of all the 
official papers and public records of the island, whose 
history is thereby rendered so obscure and incomplete." 



XL 

THE PANIC OF THE PLANTERS. 

FEAR on guilt attends, and deeds of darkness 
The virtuous breast ne er knows it. 

HOWARD. 

Desponding fear, of feeble fancies full, 
Weak and unmanly, loosens every power. 

THOMSON. 

JALFWAY between Hayti and Jamaica, the voyager on 
the Carribbean Sea first catches a glimpse of the blue 
mountains of " the land of springs ; " (for so Jamaica 
was called by its aboriginal inhabitants ;) the towering hills 
of both islands being visible at the same time from the deck 
of the ship, when the weather is clear. But the first land 
which he approaches is Morant Point, forming the south 
eastern extremity of Jamaica, and stretching out a consider 
able distance into the sea, so low and flat as not to be seen 
from a vessel s deck until she is close upon it. Morant 
Point has been exceedingly fatal to ships ; many a gallant 
bark having struck upon this treacherous tongue of land, 
before the slow progress of civilization, and the still slower 
.growth of public spirit, in the British colonies of the West 
Indies, led to the erection of a light-house, whose beacon 
flame, gleaming over the dark waters, now admonishes the 
mariner of the danger upon which he might have rushed. 
This eastern extremity of the island is comprised in the 
parish of St. Thomas ; Jamaica being divided into parishes, 
several of which are almost equal in geographical extent to 
some English counties. This part of the island offers to 
the admiring traveller many scenes of surpassing beauty. 
Looking southward from the low range of hills at the eastern 



THE PANIC OF THE PLANTERS. 179 

commencement of that vast chain of mountains running 
right through the centre of the island from east to west, 
intersected by thousands of magnificent ravines and fruitful 
valleys, the eye is greeted by a landscape of Eden-like 
grandeur and loveliness. Enclosed between two ranges of 
rising lands, in a fork of the mountains open to the sea at 
one end, and terminating almost in a point at the other, 
lies what is called the Plantain-Garden-River District, nine 
or ten miles in length, and several in width. It is the most 
fertile spot in one of the most fertile countries in the world, 
and is divided into a number of sugar plantations, not sur 
passed in value by any in the colony ; each of considerable 
extent, and possessing a soil of inexhaustible richness, which, 
with little or no aid of agricultural chemistry, produces crop 
after crop from the same roots through a long succession of 
years, without any diminution either in quality or quantity. 
The lovely valley is seen covered with luxuriant cane-fields, 
and studded, at distant intervals, with massive and costly 
sugar works, and the commodious mansions of the proprietors, 
surrounded by the dwellings of various grades of estate 
officials, and, farther off, with the numerous cottages of the 
peasantry ; while groves and avenues of cocoa-nut and 
cabbage-palm stretch far away, and extensive walks of 
plantain and banana trees, with soft velvet leaves, five or six 
feet in length, and of proportionate width, that cover immense 
bunches of ripening fruit, each bunch a heavy burden for a 
strong man to carry ; diversified, also, with the mango tree 
of symmetrical beauty, and the orange, whose dark foliage 
contrasts finely with the golden fruit, and the differing verdure 
of the star apple, the tamarind, and other fruit trees. To 
these objects an additional charm is given by the winding of 
the river which gives name to the valley, its course clearly 
marked by immense clusters of the plume-like bamboo, 
waving on its banks as it flows onward to the sea; and 
that boundleas ocean, moreover, reflecting the azure of a 
cloudless sky, and extending in apparently inimitable 
majesty. Altogether, such a scene of tropical beauty may 
well awaken the thought," If this earth, defaced and 

N 2 



ISO ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

ruined as it has been by sin, can exhibit such attractions, 
how far surpassing all our conceptions must it have been/ 
when the Author of all perfection and beauty smiled, as He- 
gazed upon the undefined works of His hands, and pronounced 
all to be very good ! " 

Toward the other extremity of this large parish, the 
traveller gazes upon a scene of equal but somewhat 
different grandeur. It is the Blue Mountain Valley. 
By the side of a broad but shallow river, whose usually 
gentle stream is swollen, in the rainy seasons, to a fierce, 
turgid, tumbling, impassable torrent, the eye rests upon a 
plain dotted with sugar plantations, and rich with all the 
varied and luxuriant growth of the tropics. The upper end 
of the valley is closed in by the glorious mountain range 
rising abruptly, and in such proximity as to produce 
upon the mind an almost overwhelming sense of awe ; out 
of the midst of which the Blue Mountain peak the highest 
point of land in the island is seen, a sublime and stu 
pendous object, lifting its head, often in cloudless grandeur, 
and always fresh and verdant, nearly eight thousand fett 
above the level of the sea. But, amid all this loveliness, the 
curse which sin introduced into the original Eden makes its 
influence felt. The slime of the serpent is here, as it is 
found more or less defiling and defacing everything on the 
face of this lower world. Amid towering hills and very 
pleasant valleys, which diversify this eastern part of the 
island, and also stretching out to the sea, are to be found 
foul swamps and deadly morasses, hidden by the evergreen 
mangrove, or covered with what appears, to a stranger eye > 
like a field of rich grass, but is found, on closer inspection, 
to be a coarse growth of reeds, or rushes, from the midst of 
which arise noisome, invisible exhalations, that infect the- 
atmosphere with malaria, and produce an abundant harvest 
of ague and intermittent fever, and, not unfrequently, other 
fevers of most deadly type. Beautiful, but proverbially 
unhealthy, the parish of St. Thomas in the East has been, 
in a most emphatic sense, the grave of Europeans. Few 
parts of the western coast of Africa have been more hostile- 



THE PANIC OE THE PLANTEBS. 181 

to European health and life. The town of Morant Bay, 
occupying a picture?que situation, elevated considerably 
above the sea near the mouth of the Blue Mountain Valley, 
has been long noted for its unhealthiness. The graves of a 
large number of Christian missionaries, and numerous mem 
bers of missionaries families, both in the churchyard, and 
in the unpretending burial ground of the Methodists, bear 
silent but eloquent witness to the deadly character of the 
maladies which frequently prevail there. The writer s memory 
goes back to a time when he saw three members of the same 
family borne to the grave-yard from the Mission house in a 
week ; andvividishis recollection of the scene as if it were but 
yesterday he looked upon it of the anguish of two parents 
standing by an open grave, while, with quivering voice, he 
read the funeral service over two lovely children from six to 
nine years of age, who, within forty-eight hours after the 
fever seized upon their tender frames, had passed away 
almost together from the stage of life, leaving the little 
bodies, lately so lovely in health and youth, and so fondly 
cherished, in a state requiring what might otherwise have 
appeared an unkind and indecorous haste to hide them away 
in the dust ! 

Morant Bay is the capital town of the parish, though 
-scarcely equal in size and importance to many an English 
village. Here stands the church, which, in the olden time, 
ere missionaries came, (when persons of African birth, or of 
African descent, were regarded as having no souls, and 
forming no part of the pastoral charge of the clergy,) was 
the only place of worship in a parish containing some 
thirty thousand souls ! It is different now ; for several 
other Episcopal places of worship now exist in that 
parish, and also a goodly number of Methodist chapels. 
Here also were found the workhouse and the gaol. The 
walls of the latter, if they could find a voice, would bear 
witness to many a scene of horror, and echo the dying groans 
of many a murdered slave. Those cells have also resounded, 
again and again, with the hymns and prayers of the im 
prisoned missionary of the cross, guilty only of that which 



182 .ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

is the worst of all crimes in the eye of a brutal slaveholder 
the crime of pitying the oppressed and suffering Negro, and 
preaching to the slave, in his darkness and hopelessness, the 
cheering truths of the ever-blessed Gospel. Here also is the 
court house, where, as in every similar place throughout the 
land, fearful deeds have been perpetrated under the pretext 
of administering justice, and the law has been infamously 
perverted to sanction wrongs which might make an angel 
shudder. At some little distance, somewhat back from the 
main street, stands the Wesleyan chapel, its proportions 
considerably extended, and its appearance greatly improved, 
since the advent of freedom. The old, humble-looking 
edifice, near to which stood the mission house, was erected 
under the auspices of the good and unselfish Dr. Coke, whose 
private fortune, doubtless, contributed largely to the estab 
lishment of the mission here ; which, during more than half 
a century, has brought life and salvation to thousands of 
the benighted race of Africa. 

At the beginning of the present century, some coloured 
local preachers belonging to the Methodist Society in 
Kingston found their way to Morant Bay, and gave to the 
swarming multitudes of the neighbourhood a first opportu 
nity of hearing the truths of the Gospel. For, even when 
service was held in the parish church, (which was only when 
it suited the convenience of the rector,) its doors opened 
only to those who could boast of a white complexion. Divine 
power attended the word preached by these humble mes 
sengers of truth ; and many, both slave and free, were 
brought into the liberty of the children of God. Messrs. 
Fish and Campbell, the missionaries in the city, soon visited 
the neighbourhood ; and one of the most fruitful of all our 
West India stations was established. In the face of much 
reproach, of violence and persecution, the foundations of 
a prosperous church were laid. But the enemies of the 
truth did not rest satisfied with mobbing preachers, annoying 
and insulting those who assembled to worship, and subjecting 
praying slaves to the gyves and the cart-whip. To Morant 
Bay, and the magistrates and planters of St. Thomas in the 



THE PANIC OF THE PLAXTEBS. 

East, belongs the unenviable distinction of originating that 
system of legal persecution of Christian teachers, and 
statutory opposition to the religious instruction of the down 
trodden Negro, that dishonoured Jamaica from the opening 
of the present century until religious liberty was finally 
secured to all classes in the British West Indies, by the 
enactment of the imperial legislature which broke the power 
of the oppressor, and gave back the rights of humanity to 
the slave. To the influence and representations of the 
planters and magistrates of this parish was it owing, that 
the island legislature was induced to pass the first of a series 
of oppressive laws, which, through a succession of years, 
caused the imprisonment of many missionaries, and which will 
remain for generations yet to come dark blots upon the 
statute book of the colony. 

Fear had very much to do with the opposition of West 
India slave-holders to the religious instruction of the Negroes. 
Their own safety, and the permanence of the system which 
gave them property in immortal beings, depended, they 
were well aware, upon keeping their slaves as nearly as 
possible in the condition of brutes. To close up every 
avenue of knowledge, to crush out the power of thought, and 
make the mind a dark, dreary, cheerless waste, where ideas 
can neither spring nor be developed, is the condition proper 
to slavery ; and there is security in no other. There is a 
strange and scarcely acknowledged fear always besetting 
those who live in a country where the curse of slavery 
prevails ; a dim, undefined consciousness of danger, such 
as may be supposed to haunt persons who know 
that they are living on the crust of a seething volcano, 
which at any moment may burst forth with desolating fury, 
scattering ruin and death around. This is the normal 
condition of a slave-holding community. It is a reign of 
terror, which oft-recurring attempts at insurrection, however 
unsuccessful, serve to keep in vigorous life. 

Numerous attempts of this kind, more or less formidable, 
but always greatly exaggerated by public rumour, served 
from time to time to keep the white population of Jamaica 



184 KOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

in a painful state of apprehension, which a trifling circum 
stance would be sufficient to increase, until it became 
a wide-spread panic, agitating the whole community with 
dreadful visions of bloodshed and outrage in a thousand 
startling forms. And no part of the island was more subject 
to these panics than St. Thomas in the East : for nowhere 
were the horrors of slavery more frightfully developed, or 
the poor slaves subjected to a more crushing oppression, 
than on the flourishing plantations of this celebrated sugar- 
growing parish. 

The incidents of our tale carry us back to an early date in 
the present century, when the preaching of the Methodists 
is as yet somewhat of a novelty in this part of the island, 
and the members of the Society are comparatively few. A 
death has taken place on one of the plantations, no extra 
ordinary occurrence that I It is a female slave, worn out by 
excessive toil and hardship, who has passed away to an 
unbroken rest: for she is one of the earliest fruits of 
missionary labour at this station. Having sought and 
realized the hallowing and elevating joys of true religion, 
through faith in the blood of the Lamb, she has departed 
in peace to join the blood- washed multitude before the throne, 
who " hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither doth 
the sun light on them, nor any heat." Her Christian 
course has been a brief one, (for but recently she first heard 
of God, and Christ, and salvation, and heaven,) but how 
great and blessed the change which has crowned it ! from 
the blood-stained plantation to the celestial paradise ; from 
a wretched, unfurnished hovel, to the mansions of light and 
glory; from the toil-worn and bleeding slave-gang to the 
glorious company of angels, and the spirits of the just made 
perfect ; from the horrible discipline of the bilboes, and the 
cat, and the cart-whip, and the wasting, weary toil of the 
cane-field, to that "fulness of joy," and those "pleasures for 
evermore," which are at the right hand of God ! Who 
can wonder that the Gospel should have proved thrice 
welcome, both in our own colonies, and in the southern 



THE PANIC OP THE PLAHTEBS. 185 

states of America, to the desponding and heart-crushed 
captive ? 

A slave can own nothing not even his own body, or 
the worthless rags that cover it. Body, soul, time, 
labour, clothing, all he is, and all he has, belong to his 
owner! Such is the unparalleled outrage which slavery 
involves. In yonder poor hut, which she inhabits no longer 
there is the coarse box, or trunk, wherein the departed 
Negress was accustomed to keep the few scanty articles of 
apparel she used to wear, the cherished Sunday suit, very 
humble, but donned only when the coveted opportunity 
came, which was but seldom, of bending her steps to the 
house of God. This box and its contents fall now into the 
possession of plantation officials, probably to furnish the 
wardrobe of some unhappy creature just landed from the 
slave ship, after a miserable and soul-sickening voyage from 
the coast of her native Africa, to fill up the vacancy on the 
estate which death, with so little regard to the interests of 
the great man who owns the plantation and its slaves, has 
recently made. Along with the rest of the few articles in 
the box, there is found, very carefully folded in a fragment 
of old cloth, and put away in a corner, a small oblong piece 
of paper, upon which, in addition to several hieroglyphics, 
there is printed in fair legible type a text of Scripture: 
" The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent 
take it by force." The book-keeper, one of the officials, 
(so-called, it has been said, "because he never sees a book,") 
greatly surprised, takes the mysterious paper in hand, and 
examines it in all possible ways, back and front, right side 
up and upside down; but he is altogether at a loss to under 
stand what it means. He is just scholar enough to spell out 
the plain words; but there are other printed characters, 
" MATT. xi. 12," of which he can make nothing at all ; and 
as to the few marks, evidently made with pen and ink, on 
different parts of the paper, they are altogether a mystery, 
that he is unable to fathom. But he has a dreamy 
apprehension that there must be, in all this, something very 
wrong, and very terrible. 



188 EOMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

The scrap of paper is taken and shown to other white 
officials of the estate, including book-keepers, head mason, 
head carpenter, &c., &c. But, beyond reading the printed 
words, they can make nothing of it ; until one, a little more 
clever than his fellows, succeeds in spelling out, in part of 
the writing, the name of the deceased slave. This is 
startling, and only deepens the mystery : for where could 
she have got that piece of paper, with the threatening 
language printed on it ? and who could have written her 
name upon it ? It is evident there is something very 
wrong about the matter ; arid with all haste the suspected 
document is carried to the overseer of the estate. The 
"busha" the Negro contraction of overseer takes the 
paper from his subordinates, after hearing the alarming 
details of its discovery. He is an older hand than they; 
and he has heard more about the seditious preaching of the 
missionaries, and is more familiar with rumours of conspiracy 
and insurrection than his subordinates, most of whom, adven 
turers from Scotland, have not themselves very long landed. 
The more he looks at the paper, and at the inexplicable 
words and marks it bears, and the more he thinks of the 
strange circumstances in which it has been brought to light, 
the more excited and alarmed he becomes ; until at length 
he arrives at the satisfactory conclusion, that he has in his 
hands a clue to one of those dire conspiracies which have 
so often horrified the imaginations of the planters. For 
there is manifestly, he thinks, some dark and terrible- 
meaning wrapped up in those significant words about the 
violent taking something by force. 

Inflated not a little with a flattering idea of the discovery 
he has made, his fancy meantima running riot in scenes of in- 
surrection,burning plantations, militia marchings andcounter- 
marchings, slaughtered Negroes, courts-martial, and military 
executions, and not without some glimmering anticipations 
of honour, patronage, and profit, which are to reward his own 
meritorious sagacity and zeal, the overseer gives orders for 
his horse to be saddled with all possible haste, and, without 
the loss of a minute, gallops off with the cabalistic paper to 



THE PANIC OP THE PLASTJEUS. 187 

the residence of the "custos." (Such is the title of the 
chief magistrate of a Jamaica parish : something analogous 
to that of a lord lieutenant of an English county.) The 
hour is unseasonable, (for by this time the day is far 
advanced,) and it is a question whether the custos 
will see him, or indeed whether " his honour " is likely 
to be in a state fit for the transaction of public busi 
ness. In truth, after imbibing all the punch and other 
fluids which they think necessary to supply the rapid ex 
haustion of physical power within the tropic?, some of these 
dignitaries are not usually quite up to the mark for important 
official duty in the latter part of the day. But here is a 
matter admitting of no delay. Fit or unfit, sober or 
otherwise, the great man must be seen. The name of the 
overseer is accordingly sent in, with an intimation that busi 
ness of the greatest urgency, as connectecl with the public 
safety, brings him hither. To the request for an interview, 
so enforced, there can be no denial ; and the visitor is shown 
into the great man s presence. The strange paper is pro 
duced, and the circumstances of its discovery are fully 
explained to the legal functionary, who looks very grave : 
for he, like the overseer, can make nothing of it, except that 
some awful conspiracy is on foot, for the tracing and sup 
pression of which prompt and decisive measures must be 
taken. 

Having, with the aid of the overseer s logic, got this con 
viction firmly settled in his mind, the custos concludes there 
is not a moment to be lost. Special messengers are at once 
dispatched to summon all the magistrates in the vicinity to 
meet him at an early hour next day on very special busi 
ness ; while other messengers are sent off by his orders, 
(for he acts in a twofold capacity,) to assemble as large a 
force of the militia as can be brought together, at the court 
house, during the night, or early in the morning ; all fully 
armed and accoutred for whatever . service may be demanded 
at their hands. From one plantation to another the alarm is. 
sounded ; and the peaceable inhabitants of the town are startled 
at all hours throughout the night, by the noisy gather- 



188 ROMANCE OP THE MISSION FIELD. 

ing of those who compose this force, and of their attendants, 
who come rattling through the generally quiet streets, as if 
they were followed by a pursuing army. Soon sleep is 
banished from all eyes by rumours of a most bloody insur 
rection that has broken out already, or is on the point of 
breaking out, among the servile population. None can tell 
where the danger lies whether it is in some distant part of 
the island, or close at their own doors : but that there is 
danger, very great and imminent, none can doubt ; or where 
fore all this stir ? The dawn brings no relief, but rather 
adds to the confusion and alarm : for more and more of the 
planters, (who chiefly compose the militia force,) from all 
the estates within a distance of some miles, are seen, with 
every indication of haste, hurrying through the town, with 
their soldierly equipments ; and at an unusually early hour 
the magistrates from different parts of the parish, followed 
by Negro boys riding upon mules, are also seen driving with 
haste in the direction of the court house. Every thing 
seems to imply that a crisis is at hand, which the authorities 
regard as one of the greatest importance. 

A considerable number of the learned magistrates of the 
parish, with the custos at their head, are soon in profound 
deliberation. What serves to increase the alarm among the 
uninitiated, is the fact, that they carry on their deliberations 
with closed doors. All approach, except for the privileged, 
is carefully forbidden by armed sentinels. In this conclave 
of parish magnates there is great excitement. All are anx 
ious to be put in possession of the particulars of the horrid 
conspiracy which has been discovered. When a sufficient 
number of the dignitaries have assembled, the business is 
opened. The important paper is produced, and the overseer, 
not a little elevated in his own estimation, is called upon to 
state all the circumstances which led to the discovery of the 
seditious document before the meeting ; for that is the cha 
racter which by general consent has been fixed upon the 
ticket. Nothing loth, he addresses himself to the task. 
Their worships are duly informed, with all minuteness of 
detail, when, and where, and how, the paper was found. 



THE PANIC OF THE PLAiNTEES. 189 

Next are rehearsed the opinions and surmises which have 
been entertained by the different parties concerned in mak 
ing the discovery. To all this is added the statement, which 
has been gleaned up by some means, that the deceased slave, 
whose name is on the paper, had been for some time in the 
habit of going to the Methodist chapel at the Bay, and that, 
since she went thither, a great change had taken place in 
her habits and appearance. In fact, she became much more 
reserved and thoughtful than she used to be ; as if she had 
something more than usual upon her mind. She now took 
no part, as she had been wont to do, in the dances and 
revels which the other slaves on the estate got up occasion 
ally. All this, of course, is regarded as matter of grave 
suspicion ; and, after long consultation, there is but one 
opinion among that sagacious and learned body of magis 
trates, that it is a case pregnant with great danger to 
the country, and demanding most prompt and careful 
inquiry. 

After several long hours spent in discussion, (so earnest 
and exhausting as to demand a very liberal expenditure 
of wine, punch, or brandy,) it is resolved to send out 
all the militia that can be spared, a sufficient force being 
kept in reserve for the defence of the town ; though no one 
can say what possible danger threatens it, or whence any is 
likely to proceed. Further, that all the huts, &c., belonging 
to the estates in the neighbourhood where the slave has 
died, under such suspicion, shall be at once rigorously 
searched. The question has been long and earnestly debated, 
whether a despatch shall be sent immediately to the 
governor, calling upon him to proclaim martial law in the 
parish, or, if he think it better, throughout the island; but 
it is determined that the further consideration of that pro 
posal shall be postponed until the result of the proposed 
search of the huts, &c., shall have been ascertained. The 
necessary orders are now issued ; and it is with no little 
pride, and with a very large degree of bustling importance, 
that the militia officers muster and parade the men under 
their command in several detachments, before marching 



190 BOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

forth on the grand expedition assigned to them. Still the 
cause of these various movements remains to all, except the 
magistrates and the militia officers, a profound secret : hut 
the townspeople are additionally terrified when they hear that 
a large quantity of ammunition has been served out to the 
soldiers, and when they see one body after another of these 
heroes marching away by different routes into the country, but 
mostly in one certain direction. Business is entirely suspended, 
and a vague feeling of apprehension is prevalent in all 
minds. 

Meanwhile, the detachments of the militia proceed to their 
destination, and, to the great terror of the several slave 
gangs, present themselves in all their red-coat glory on the 
different plantations. With no excessive affectation of 
gentleness or delicacy, (for what need is there of gentleness 
or delicacy towards Negro slaves ?) they execute their com 
mission, and every house is subjected to an unceremonious 
search. If a door is fastened, it is not a difficult matter to 
break it down ; and if a box should chance to have a lock, 
or other fastening, it is easily smashed with the butt-end of a 
musket. There is very little to examine, indeed, when by 
this summary process the boxes have been made to give 
their contents to the light; but presently there is much 
excitement among the busy detectives, for, sure enough, in 
several of the boxes are found scraps of paper, not unlike that 
above described, which, they now learn from their officers, 
are the very objects of the search. Each one, carefully 
deposited among the few articles of wearing apparel in the 
box or trunk, is found to be identical with that seditious 
document which has created such a sensation. From one 
hut to another the soldiers proceed, now wrought up to an 
almost overpowering excess of earnestness and zeal ; and their 
exertions are rewarded by the discovery of more than a 
hundred of these papers ; the owners of which, one and all, 
are taken into custody, their arms fastened behind them. 
From them the important information is obtained, that all 
tbese papers have been given out by the Methodist preacher. 
There they are, all bearing the same mysterious and threaten- 



THE PANIC OF THE PLANTERS. 191 

ing words, " The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and 
the violent take it by force ; " having the same written 
marks ; the only difference being, that each paper bears the 
name of the person in whose possession it was found. 
" What can possibly be more plain ? " say some. " Here is 
ample and unquestionable evidence of a wide-spread conspiracy 
among the slaves, at the head of which is the Methodist 
preacher ! We have always accused these parsons of 
seditious preaching ; and here we have proof of the fact 
proof strong as holy writ ! " Who can describe the triumph 
with which these military gentlemen exult over the magnifi 
cent success which has crowned their expedition ? And who 
shall picture the excitement of the townspeople ? not, 
however, unmixed with a sense of relief, when they behold 
scores of wretched captives, securely bound, marched 
into the town surrounded by fixed bayonets ; all of whom, 
they are assured, are the leaders of the insurrection 
which was on the point of breaking out. And now rumour 
with her hundred tongues is busy. Through the town, and 
through the parish, the intelligence swiftly spreads, that a 
most sanguinary revolt has been nipped in the bud. And 
soon, through the medium of the newspapers, the public, 
from the east to the west of the island, are startled by the 
intelligence from St. Thomas in the East, that seditious 
meetings have been held in the houses of the slaves at 
midnight ; that the Negroes have been corrupted, and led to 
rebellion, by the preaching of the Methodists ; that a large 
quantity of seditious papers have been seized ; and that, by 
the prompt and courageous conduct of the custos and the 
magistrates, and the bravery of the militia, "beyond all praise," 
the island has been rescued from the horrors of a servile war. 
It is deemed advisable by the authorities to place a strong 
militia force upon the several plantations where these 
papers have been seized, to prevent the rising of the slaves ; 
who, poor creatures ! have no more thought of any insurrec 
tionary movement, than of attempting to uproot the Blue 
Mountains, to which they are accustomed daily to lift their 
eyes. They take alarm, however, and wonder what all this 



102 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

commotion is about, and what is the meaning of the rude 
and unceremonious searching of their lowly dwellings. And 
they are still more amazed when they see a large number of 
their fellows, whose houses and boxes have been broken open, 
tied and marched off to the Bay. The venerable magis 
trates have been very busy, in consequence of the important 
discoveries made, of which a full account has been sent off 
by an express messenger to the king s house, at the seat of 
government. A few days have elapsed, and all the justices 
of the parish assembled in special session; yea, and some 
from the adjoining parishes, who, terror-struck by the reports 
in circulation, have come as spectators of the proceedings. 
Not a few of them loom very large in the proud adorn 
ing of military costume, being holders both of civil and 
military commissions ; and such an opportunity of showing 
off in the blazonry of war is not to pass unimproved.; 
Some time is spent in preliminary discussion, until, all 
things being ready, a party is despatched to request the 
attendance of the Methodist preacher at the court-house, 
strong enough, by the way, to insure a compliance with the 
magisterial mandate, should there be any difficulty in obeying 
it But no compulsion is required ; Methodist preachers 
being in the habit of paying due respect to " the powers 
that be," as a part of their religion. The missionary, who, 
like all others, has been studiously kept in the dark as to 
the cause of the unusual stir, begins, however, as he pre 
pares to accompany the military messengers, to ask him 
self what lie can have to do with these strange proceedings, 
and what sort of service the magistrates can wish him to 
render on the occasion of a conspiracy, real or fancied. It 
never enters into his mind that any charge can be made 
against himself. Ready for any lawful service to which he 
may be put, with willing step he wends his way to the 
court-house, and is at once introduced into the presence of 
the "powers " awaiting his arrival. On looking around, he 
observes that a deep gravity marks the countenance of 
almost every one ; and it is clear that his appearance, 
though fully expected, has caused no little sensation.. 



THE PANIC OP THE PLANTEES. 193 

It is no small trial to his modesty, when he finds himself 
the observed of all observers ; and he soon perceives that it is 
anything but a friendly gaze which is directed toward him, by 
the custos and his associates. A dark frown meets his eye in 
one direction, and the scowl of a fierce malignity in another ; 
while the conviction forces itself upon him, that, whatever 
may be the purpose, it is no amicable interview with these 
legal dignitaries to which he has been summoned. 

He is not left long in doubt. After some whispering with 
his brother magistrates, the custos proceeds, with a good 
deal of appropriate circumlocution, to open the business, 
and explain to the wondering missionary, that a discovery 
has been made of a wide-spread conspiracy against the peace 
and welfare of the colony ; that a search has been insti 
tuted, which has resulted in the seizure of a large quantity 
of papers of evil character and tendency ; that many slaves 
implicated in the conspiracy, in whose possession these 
papers were found carefully concealed, have been arrested, 
and are now in custody ; and that, by the confession of 
many of these prisoners, the whole conspiracy has been 
traced to him as its mainspring and source, inasmuch as 
they had received the papers from his hands ; and that he 
must consider himself now in custody on the very serious 
charge of rebellion. At first, as the speaker proceeds, 
charging home these serious offences upon himself, the mis 
sionary is astounded and overwhelmed by the accusation ; 
thinking it quite possible, from the spirit of inveterate 
hostility with which Christian efforts have been uniformly 
met by the planters in this neighbourhood, that some wicked 
plot has been devised against him. But the tediousness of 
the custos, who has made the most of this occasion to dis 
play his stumbling and stammering eloquence, has been so 
far favourable to the accused, that it has given him time to 
recover self-possession ; and, long before the elaborate and 
rambling address of the great man has reached \isfinale, the 
guiltless preacher is ready to confront the accusation and his 
accusers. Beingcalled upon to say what reply he has tomaketo 
this grave charge, he, first of all, requests permission to look at 



194 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

some of those papers of seditious character and tendency which 
he is accused of having circulated. A lengthy consultation 
now takes place among the officials on the bench; and 
it appears there is no little difficulty about the matter. 
For first one of these gentlemen is called, and then another, 
from different parts of the room, to the consultation, the 
whole of which is carried on in a low tone, so that nothing 
may reach the missionary s ear. At length the custos 
announces, that the bench, after due deliberation, and with 
a willingness to grant any indulgence to one in his 
situation, have agreed to comply with his request ; and a 
paper, which appears to him surprisingly small, (considering 
the character which has been given to it,) is handed to the 
accused, with the intimation that it is only one of a large 
number in the hands of the magistrates. That one, he is 
told, was found in the box of a dead slave ; but many others 
have been discovered in the possession of living slaves, who con 
fess to having received them from the hands of the Method 
ist minister. As the paper is handed to him, every eye in 
the room is directed toward the missionary. At first, an 
expression of unutterable astonishment is visible on his 
countenance, which some of the observers regard as an indu 
bitable sign of guilt ; but in a few seconds this gives place 
to the broad smile which a keen sense of the ludicrous is apt 
to call forth, and it becomes evident to them all that the 
black-coated gentleman is restrained by a sense of the 
respect due to the court, and by that only, from giving way 
to an exuberant tide of mirth, which it would be some 
relief to him to indulge. 

Not a little surprised, and somewhat offended, by a result 
so contrary to the expectations of the grave assembly, every 
member of which has had visions before his mind s eye of a 
man in a black coat swinging upon the gallows, the custos 
inquires of the reverend gentleman what he has to say con 
cerning that paper, and the others like it ; and whether it is 
true that these documents have been distributed by him 
among the slaves. Certainly he cannot deny, and he does 
not wish to disguise it, that he gave that paper to the 



THE PANIC OP THE PLANTERS. 195 

deceased slave, and that he has given out many of a similar 
description to other persons, both free and slaves : a piece 
of intelligence which goes to confirm their worst suspicions. 
But great is their astonishment, not unmixed with doubt, 
when, with smiling gravity, he proceeds to inform them that 
the " seditious " paper, which has so alarmed their honours, 
and spread such terror through the parish, is nothing more 
or less than a Methodist Ticket, given as a token of member 
ship to all those who constitute the societies or churches of 
the body, and designed to show that the holders are entitled 
to the privilege of Christian communion. It is amusing to 
see the somewhat stolid features of the chief magistrate 
assume an expression of blank amazement, which is shared, 
more or less, by those about him : but one or two, who have 
wit to discern and appreciate the absurdity of the whole pro 
ceeding, look a little quizzical, half ashamed to feel that 
they have been betrayed into a false position. " But, Sir," 
says the custos, by no means disposed to admit the explana 
tion that has been given, "how do you account for the 
highly inflammatory and dangerous words which we find 
upon this paper ? Answer me that, Sir ! answer me that ! " 
" Most readily, Sir," replies the missionary. " Those words, 
which you regard as inflammatory and dangerous, are taken 
from the Holy Scriptures." Here looks of incredulity pass 
from one to another, while the missionary continues his 
explanation : " It is a passage which contains an exhortation 
to press into the kingdom of God, and to fight the good 
fight of faith against all that oppose the salvation of our 
souls. Those words, Sir, were certainly never intended by 
Him who first used them, or by His ministers, to stir up 
any one to commit violence against the powers that be. 
His teaching and ours, we hope, is in accordance with it 
instructs all to be subject to those powers, not only for 
wrath, but for conscience sake. " " A passage of Scripture ! " 
replies his honour, "no such thing ! I don t believe it ; I 
don t think those inflammatory words are to be found in the 
Bible ! " A Bible is called for, but there is none at hand ; 
and while one is looked up, (for there ought to be one some- 

o 2 



196 JROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

where, which has been occasionally used for administering 
the oath to witnesses at the quarter sessions,) one of the 
magistrates, a Scotchman, comes forward from a distant 
corner, and says, " Excuse me, your honour, but I think I 
remember reading some such words in the Bible when I was a 
boy. I am disposed to believe, after all, the gentleman is cor 
rect." This leads to a little discussion, and by the time it is 
finished the old tattered fragment of a Bible, which forms 
part of the court-house furniture, has been found. There is 
not a great deal of the Old Testament left, after long and 
rough service, and only a small portion of the New ; but, 
fortunately, the Gospel of Matthew is there, or as much of 
it as serves the purpose. And now the learned magistrates 
are astonished by another discovery, of which none of them 
seem to have the least conception ; namely, that the strange 
marks, " Matt. xi. 12," only mean that the words printed on 
the card are to be found in the eleventh chapter of St. 
Matthew s Gospel, and at the twelfth verse ! On reference 
to the place thus indicated, there, to the sad discomfiture of 
the learned custos, are found the very words which have 
caused so much dismay. 

All this, however, does not satisfy his honour and some 
of his compeers that there is not something very wrong in 
the business. The explanation given by the missionary 
shows that there is to be some "fighting " in the case 
and their minds are so prepossessed with visions of insur 
rection and revolt, massacre and blood, blazing cane fields and 
burning sugar works, that, notwithstanding what has been said, 
they are more than half-persuaded that the issuing of these 
papers is part of a scheme designed to work out all these dread 
ful results ; so the missionary is likely, after all, to experience 
some trouble, before he succeeds in getting out of the hands 
of these intelligent guardians of the public peace. But the 
Sotchman, who possesses a little more penetration and shrewd 
ness than others about him, and who is less disposed than many 
of them to conclude that treason and rebellion must of neces 
sity be a principal object of a Methodist preacher, again comes 
forward from his corner, and, in a short and pithy address to 



THE PANIC OF THE PLANTERS. 19? 

his learned colleagues, observes, "Your honour, the words 
on the cards are certainly taken from the Scriptures, though 
none of us were aware of it until the missionary showed that 
it was so. But, whether they are taken from the Bible or 
not, they scarcely admit of the construction that has been put 
upon them : for, although Jamaica is truly a very fine and 
prosperous country, yet, with all its delights, it can in no 
wise be called the kingdom of heaven. I presume, there 
fore, to suggest to your honour and my brother magistrates, 
that, as what the gentleman has said about the words being 
in the Bible turn out to be true, and we do not seem to 
know much about such matters ourselves, and as no overt 
act of rebellion has been committed, we may venture to take 
the word of the Methodist parson for once, and accept as 
satisfactory the explanation which he has given of this very 
suspicious business." 

A few of the magistrates have by this time stolen away 
very quietly ; the affair having assumed an aspect perfectly 
ludicrous. After a little private consultation among them 
selves, the suggestion made by the Scotch gentleman is ac 
cepted by those who remain, who have failed to perceive 
the small spice of irony with which it was tinctured ; but it 
is considered advisable, that the custos should cover the 
retreat of the learned body by delivering a suitable admoni 
tion to the supposed culprit before he is discharged. With 
all the gravity and impressiveness he can command, the 
chief magistrate proceds to this important task, which he 
accomplishes to the profound satisfaction both of himself 
and of the body of which he is the distinguished head : 

" Mr. ., we are satisfied with your explanation of the 

present affair. But a word of caution may be useful to you. 
And mind, Sir, we have our eyes upon you. We have no 
objection to your preaching to our Negroes, provided you do 
so properly. Tell them to be good servants, Sir. Tell 
them not to lie to their masters, nor to steal from them. 
Tell them not to be runaways, but to stay at home, and 
imind and do their masters work. Preach this to them, Sir, 
and welcome. But no faith, no faith, Sir, if you please. 



198 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

Don t let us hear of your preaching faith, Sir. No, no ; 
we ll have no faith no faith. Our Negroes must not be 
corrupted with such a doctrine as that. Take care then, 
Sir. Our eyes are upon you, Sir. Take care, and don t let 
us catch you preaching faith to them. You can now retire, 
Sir." 

The missionary bows low at the conclusion of this 
remarkable address, and, without attempting a reply, bends 
his steps homeward, vastly amused, if not greatly edified, by 
the unique specimen of elocution to which he has just 
listened. The magisterial conclave breaks up ; each retiring, 
somewhat crestfallen, to his home. The next thing is the 
recalling of the militia from the plantations, on which they 
have been keeping vigilant guard against the apprehended 
outbreak. The slave prisoners are brought out of the stifling 
cells in which they have been crowded, and bidden to go 
back to the estates to which they respectively belong, still 
profoundly ignorant concerning the crimes which have 
caused their imprisonment. The excitement in the town 
subsides almost as rapidly as it arose ; business resumes its 
usual course ; and so ends the " rebellion" which has spread 
terror throughout the island from Manchioneal to Negril, 
filled the newspapers with wild and groundless rumours, and 
occasioned such an amount of perplexity and trouble to the 
wise men of the east in Jamaica. 

N. B. The Scotch magistrate became a kind friend of the 
missionaries in this part of the island ; and it was partly 
through his influence, that, some years afterwards, the parish 
authorities voted a grant of 100 to the widow of a young 
and laborious missionary, who had fallen a victim to the 
Morant Bay fever. 



XII. 

THE LOST MISSIONAKY. 

OF thousands thou both sepulchre and pall, 
Old Ocean, art ! A requiem o er the dead, 
From out thy gloomy cells 
A tale of mourning tells, 
Tells of man s woe and fall, his sinless glory fled. 

DANA. 

EBE NOST BONUM. Such were the words in Eoman 
capitals, about an inch in length, and cut deeply in the 
solid wood, that I found engraved on the massive rail 
ing that separated the raised quarter-deck from the main-deck 
of the vessel in the good barque " Hebe." It was in the year 
1831, that she was bearing me, with my young wife, and 
two other missionaries, across the Atlantic, to the scene of 
our intended labours in the isles of the Carribbean Sea, where 
slavery held more than three quarters of a million of human 
beings in its cruel grasp ; and the yellow fever had been mak 
ing havoc of the missionary band, who, in the face of bitter, 
relentless persecution, were toiling with self-denying zeal, to 
light up the dark path of the children of oppression with 
the bright hope of life and immortality beyond the grave. 
The "Hebe" was from London, commanded by Captain 
Lawson. The owner, Captain Weller, was also on board, 
acting as supercargo, and looking well to the comfort of the 
twenty-nine passengers who had embarked in his ship for 
their several destinations in the West. 

" Hebe non lonum ! What, Captain Weller," I asked, 
" is the meaning of this inscription, so derogatory to the 
character of the fine ship that is bearing us so comfortably 
and safely to our new homes ? " " Ah ! " replied he, " there 
is a melancholy story connected with that inscription. 
Those letters were cut, as you see them, by a hand that was 



200 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

cold in death an hour after the inscription was completed. 
It was the last act of poor Snelgrove, who, as you will 
doubtless have heard, was lost overboard last year on the 
banks of Newfoundland, when the ship was bound to New 
Brunswick. He had been occupied for an hour or two in 
cutting out those letters with his penknife when the accident 
occurred, which, in a moment, cut off the promise of a 
devoted and useful life." 

This reply of the Captain, while it invested the few simple 
words on which my eye was resting with a thrilling interest, 
awakened a crowd of memories which passed vividly beiore 
my mind ; for I had been associated for a short season with 
the young missionary whose career of usefulness had bet n 
cut short even before it had well commenced. 

About a year before the inscription first met my gaze, I 
was one of a band of some twelve or fifteen young men 
assembled at the Wesleyan Mission House in Hatton 
Garden, London, all of whom were destined for employment 
in the wide field of Wesleyan missions. Several of them 
had already received their appointments, and were waiting 
until the vessels should be ready to sail which had been 
selected to convey them to their spheres of toil in various 
parts of the world. Others were waiting for the usual 
examination before the Missionary Committee, having been 
recommended by their several District Meetings for the 
mission work. Several more, of whom I was one, had been 
already approved and accepted, and were about to return 
home to await the call of the Committee, when openings 
should occur in the missions to create a demand for their 
services. 

While thus providentially thrown together for a few days, 
having never met before, and certain, when once scattered, 
never to come together again in this life, these young devo 
tees of the missionary cause set apart each afternoon for 
mutual prayer and Christian fellowship. An upper chamber 
of the Mission House, close under the roof, was used for 
this purpose. There, many a hymn of praise ascended, 
sweet accepted sacrifice, and many an earnest prayer was 



THE LOST MISSIONARY. 201 

poured out before God by these young servants of a heavenly 
Master, for those richer baptisms of the Holy Spirit, which 
should fit them for a successful discharge of the arduous 
duties to which their youthful energies had been consecrated. 
These were seasons of holy intercourse with God ; times of 
spiritual refreshing, to be gratefully remembered under a 
tropic sun, or in the frozen regions of the north ; and 
probably not to be forgotten in the annals of eternity. 

It was a beautiful summer afternoon, the last of the week, 
and the daily prayer-meeting was going on. Several had 
already engaged in prayer. All hearts were bowed down 
before the Lord ; for a more than ordinary unction rested 
upon the youthful band that Saturday afternoon, as first 
one and then another and another took the lead in addressing 
the throne of grace. A loud knocking at the door interrupted 
what was going on. One of the young men stepped to the 
door and, opening it, received the message that had been 
brought ; and when the verse then being sung was con 
cluded, announced it to the others : " Messrs. Daniel and 
Snelgrove are required to go on board immediately, as their 
vessel, the Hebe, is now getting under weigh, and will 
at once drop down the river, and put to sea." The meeting 
was broken up, and the two young missionaries, after a loving 
farewell to their companions, and accompanied by their best 
wishes and earnest prayers, departed to join the ship ; 
which was to be for some weeks their home upon the deep, 
and convey them to the scene of their toil. Little did they, 
or any of those who were left behind, anticipate the occur 
rence that was to consign one of those zealous young servants 
of the cross to a watery grave. Into no mind did the 
thought enter, that one of them would be taken within the 
veil, even before his eyes should rest upon the foreign coast 
where he fondly hoped that years of self-denying usefulness 
awaited him in the service of that honoured Master who, in 
the morning of life, had called him to enjoy the blessedness 
of the great salvation, and put it into his heart to devote 
his life and energies to usefulness in the great mission 
field. 



202 BOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

Gaily sped the goodly barque down the Channel with her 
missionary passengers on board ; all sails spread to a favouring 
breeze. It was hoped from the favourable commencement of 
the voyage, that the " Hebe " would have a short and pleasant 
passage to her destination in the New World. But changes 
of winds occurred, as they ran between the French and 
English coasts ; and a rough sea with head winds failed 
not to exact the usual penalty from the inexperienced navi 
gators, who had never before known the effect of pitching and 
tossing upon the rolling waves. The trouble was, however, 
of short duration. They speedily rallied from the prostra 
tion occasioned by sea sickness, and were able to gaze with 
interest upon the towering cliffs and projecting headlands of 
the land that gave them birth ; and which, although they 
were voluntarily leaving it, they still loved so well. At 
length all the difficulties and hindrances of the Channel 
navigation have been encountered and overcome ; and fondly 
they gaze upon the fading outlines of the land. Their 
hearts are heavy, as memories of the past crowd upon the 
mind ; nor is it a reproach to their manhood that the tear 
falls, as lingering looks continue to be directed towards the 
now all but invisible spot where they have so recently 
parted from all they hold dear on earth ! 

The rough waters of the British Channel have prepared 
the young missionaries for the rougher greeting of the Bay 
of Biscay, whose great rolling billows afford them opportu 
nity of beholding and adoring the majesty and power of the 
Almighty One, of whom it is declared, " The sea is His, and 
He made it, and His hands prepared the dry land." Alter 
nate breeze and calm, fair winds and head winds, have helped 
or impeded their progress, calling into exercise both hope 
and patience during several weeks. The gambols of the 
porpoise, the spouting of the monster whale, the changing 
hues of the dolphin, languishing and dying upon the deck, 
with the treacherous hook in his jaws, have all served to 
relieve the monotony of a long passage by sea ; and all are 
fraught with interest to those who have hitherto been 
strangers to the wonders of the deep. 



THE LOST MISSIONARY. 203 

But there have been things of a less pleasant character to 
diversify the experience of the missionary voyagers. The 
captain in command of the vessel, a near relative of the 
owners, is a professor of religion ; but not a man of genial 
temper and suavity of manners. Habitually rough and 
repulsive in his bearing, it has not served to improve his 
temper and deportment that he has embraced the sour, nar 
row creed of the Antinomian. He regards with scorn and 
disfavour the young men, committed for a season to his care, 
who are going to a distant part of the world as the heralds 
of the Gospel, because theirs is a message which proclaims 
universal redemption, and teaches, 

" He hatli for all a ransom paid, 
For all a full atonement made." 

Forgetting the courtesy due to his missionary guests, he 
frequently indulges his sour, unamiable disposition by scoff 
ing at truths which they hold most dear and important ;. 
and forces them, unwillingly, into controversial discussions 
they would gladly have avoided. This goes on for several 
weeks, grievously interfering with the comfort of the young 
men, and throwing an aspect of gloom over what might 
otherwise have been a pleasant voyage. 

Now they approach the banks of Newfoundland, and the 
weather, which has hitherto been comparatively calm and 
pleasant, becomes rough and stormy. Fierce gales succeed 
the balmy breezes that have wafted them on their course ; 
and the vessel is tossed and tumbled about like a feather on 
the waves. Day after day the fierce sou - wester stirs up the 
depth of ocean, until the vast billows rolling past remind 
the beholders of the expression they have often met with, 
"the waves running mountains high." Driven from the 
cabin to escape the coarse dogmatism of the captain, who 
persists in forcing upon them discussions with which they 
have become wearied and disgusted, the younger of the two 
missionaries, more sensitive than his sedate companion 
one memorable afternoon betakes himself after dinner to the 
quarter-deck, preferring the loud roaring of the winds, and 



204 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

the raging of the sea, to angry and intolerant theological 
disputations ; and seeks relief to his chafed and harassed 
spirit in carving the words which afterwards arrested my 
attention, "Hebe non bonum /" giving expression in this way 
to the feeling of discomfort and displeasure which for the 
moment oppressed his mind. It is with difficulty he has 
kept his feet by clinging to the rail, owing to the violent 
rolling of the ship. When the self-imposed task is com 
pleted, returning the knife to his pocket, he gazes moodily 
for a few moments upon the inscription, and then takes his 
seat upon the hencoops which line the bulwarks on either 
side of the quarter-deck, containing ducks and poultry, etc., 
destined to minister to the comfort of the passengers. Wave 
after wave rolls on, now bearing the ship high upon their 
crest, and again almost burying her out of sight as she sinks 
into the trough of the angry sea. 

For a few moments the young missionary sits gazing 
upon the wide waste of rushing waters, and listening to the 
roar of the gale as it howls through the rigging above his 
head, himself the only occupant of the quarter-deck, except 
the mate in charge of the vessel and the man at the wheel. 
Perceiving the near approach of a wave of stupendous 
magnitude that is rushing towards the ship, he rises hastily 
from his seat to go below, and makes a dash at the com 
panion stair head, hoping to gain footing and shelter there 
before the threatening billows should break against the 
vessel. But just as he rises the vessel takes a violent lurch, 
sinking into the deep trough of the sea until her bulwarks 
almost touch the water. She rests for a moment on her 
beam ends, her deck being almost perpendicular with the 
raging tide. Pitched violently forward by the sudden 
motion of the ship, he misses his aim, shoots past the com 
panion place, and in a moment plunges head foremost into 
the raging element. 

" Man overboard," is the appalling cry that rings through 
the ship, and all hands immediately rush on deck. Hen 
coops are cut loose, and with the chairs scattered about are 
thrown overboard, for the drowning man to grasp should he 



THE LOST MISSIONARY. 205 

rise to the surface ; and all on board rush aft to afford all 
the help that may be in their power. 

Bub no help is of any avail. No boat could live twa 
minutes in those troubled waters. If the lost one ever came 
to the surface of that troubled raging sea, no human eye 
caught a glimpse of him. Only his hat can be seen floating 
near the spot where he has been engulfed. He has passed 
away far beyond mortal ken, and in the full vigour of young 
and lusty life has sunk into an ocean grave. He has left his 
companion to go alone to that which had been marked out 
as the scene of their united toil, and a large circle of loving 
friends to mourn over the unexpected intelligence of the loss 
they have sustained in his early removal to the land of the 
blessed. Dark and inscrutable are the ways of God. We 
cannot now understand why the Great and Holy One should 
thus snatch away the young missionary to his rest, before he 
could enter upon his work. But He doeth all things wisely 
and well. By and by we shall see clearly, as we cannot see 
now, that this painful dispensation of Providence that 
deprived the church of a valuable missionary agent, and sent 
sorrow and anguish to many hearts, was ruled by unerring 
wisdom and infinite love. 



XIII. 

YELLOW-FEVER VICTIMS. 

THEY who die in Christ are blest ; 
Ours be, then, no thought of grieving ! 
Sweetly with their God they rest, 
All their toils and troubles leaving. 
So be ours the faith that saveth, 
Hope that every trial braveth, 
Love that to the end endureth, 
And, through Christ, the crown secureth ! 

BISHOP DOANE. 

>yiJFTER a voyage of more than sixty days from the 
fl\ Thames, the good ship " Atlantic " reaches her 
"<ci^> destination, bearing three young men, and the wife 
of one of them, to the scene of their allotted toil in the slave 
land of Jamaica. 

Having dropped her anchor for a few hours during the 
night at Port R-oyalj she has taken advantage of the land 
breeze to make her way through the narrow, circuitous 
channel to Kingston ; and while the morning is yet young, 
takes up the berth assigned to her by the imperative official 
styled the harbour master. A shore boat shortly receives 
the passengers, with the few articles of baggage they are 
able to take on shore with them ; and in a few moments 
they find themselves on the wharf. How new and strange 
is the scene ! They are surrounded by piles of lumber, with 
numerous hogsheads of sugar, and puncheons of rum, that 
half naked Negro slaves are rolling towards a ship lying 
close to the wharf. The crew are busily occupied in hoisting 
them on board, to the tune of some favourite nautical 
melody, which serves to animate and lighten their toil. 
Threading their way with care over small pools of molasses 
that have drained from the sugar casks, they soon emerge 



TELLOW-PEYER VICTIMS. 207 

into a narrow street, where a decent-looking coloured 
woman, hearing their inquiries for the Methodist mission 
house, and justly concluding from their appearance that it is 
a band of new missionaries who have arrived, steps forward, 
and with respectful curtsey and smiling face, volunteers her 
services to conduct them to the place they wish to find. 

The streets are heavy with sand, and the full tide of 
tropical heat pours down upon them, as they slowly follow 
their guide, who has pressed two or three of her sable 
acquaintances into the service ; making them take charge of 
the packages which the voyagers have brought ashore with 
them. In a quarter of an hour they find themselves in a 
fine square of considerable extent. On the eastern side a 
large house, with green jalousies stretching across the entire 
front, is pointed out to them as the chapel. The woman 
turns round, as she directs their attention to it, and exhibiting 
in her pleasure a set of glittering ivory teeth, informs them, 
" Me member of the society too, massa. Me hope minister 
and missis hab one pleasant voyage. Me glad for true to 
see minister come for teach me de way to hebben." 

Ascending some steps, through a broad gateway, they 
pass between two wide staircases, which they are informed 
lead up into the chapel, and enter the mission house on the 
ground floor. They are warmly greeted by the occupants of 
the dwelling, even before they can present the letters of 
which they are the bearers from the connexional authorities 
under whose auspices they have left their homes, to enter 
upon a field of usefulness in a far distant foreign land. Very 
speedily a multitude of visitors are flocking around to 
welcome them; for the news has rapidly spread, far and 
wide in the city, that some new missionaries have arrived 
from England. Many a warm shake of the hand and many 
a tear-bedewed cheek bear witness to the heart-felt joy with 
which their presence is hailed. It is with very strange and 
mingled emotions that the young missionaries, and the fair 
youthful companion of their voyage, regard the dusky faces, 
which, full of animation, and radiant with pleasure, surround 
them on every side. 



20S ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

These visitors are the free people, who thus hasten on 
wings of love to welcome the missionaries among them ; 
their time being at their own disposal. By and by one 
and another, with timid faltering steps, present themselves 
at the door, to look in upon " the new ministers and the 
lady." These they learn are children of bondage, slaves 
belonging to families in the city ; who, sent upon some 
errand, have ventured to step a little out of the way "just to 
look at massa minister." Some of them have to bear no 
small amount of ill usage at the hands of unfeeling owners, 
who seek to cure their love of prayer, and drive religion out 
of them, by the free use of the " cat." 

The new comers are not long in learning that it is no 
easy service to which they are devoted, and that they have 
come to a land where bigotry and persecution are rampant. 
The several attempts which have been made by the legisla 
ture of the colony to hinder, by statute, the benevolent 
efforts of missionaries to enlighten and elevate the down 
trodden children of Africa by the benign influences of the 
Gospel, have been baffled by a timely appeal to the justice 
and tolerant feelings of the sovereign. But the municipal 
authorities of the city, whose charter exempts them from the 
immediate control of the crown, and gives them power to 
make ordinances for the government of the city, have been 
stirred up to abuse that power for evil purposes. A city 
ordinance now exists that prevents any religious service 
being held in the city before sunrise or after sunset, under 
heavy penalties. This intolerant law has the designed effect 
of almost entirely cutting off the slaves in the city from the 
opportunity of worship or instruction. Spies are ever on the 
watch to observe, and bring to the notice of the authorities, 
any infringement of this oppressive enactment. 

No disposition is cherished by the missionaries to oppose- 
the authority so wantonly exercised, however they may 
groan under the oppression to which they and their people 
are subjected ; and they submit, commending their cause to 
God, and hoping for better days. The arrival of the new 
missionaries is hailed by hundreds with satisfaction and joy, 



YELLOW-FEVER VICTIMS. 

heightened by the discovery that both the lady and her 
husband have excellent voices, well trained in the sweet 
melodies of those glorious Wesley hymns, whose lofty, 
glowing strains have cheered and animated thousands in the 
sorrows of life and the vale of death, and helped to plume 
the wings of many a departing spirit in its last triumphant 
flight to the paradise of Grod. 

The little mission party assembled in the afternoon in the 
ordinary sitting room, have sung together many a familiar 
tune, to which the new harmonious voices lent an addi 
tional charm ; and many a new strain, adapted to bring 
forth with greater sweetness and power the true poetry of 
those beautiful hymns, has helped to beguile the hours and 
produce forgetfulness of all earthly sorrow and care. 

As the thrilling melody ascends, 

" To patient faith the prize is sure ; 
And all that to the end endure 

The cross shall wear the crown," 

the enjoyment of the party is rudely disturbed by the 
abrupt entrance of several officials of the law, including one 
of the city magistrates, who, directing their attention to the 
fact that a few minutes have passed beyond the hour when 
the law allows a religious service to be held, proceed at once 
to take Messrs. G-. and K., the resident missionaries, into 
custody, for the purpose of conducting them to a place of 
confinement. It is in vain that they and others of the 
party point out that they were not holding any religious 
service within the meaning of the law, but merely amusing* 
themselves, as a social party, in singing a few hymns. The 
astute official, in common with his sapient magisterial 
brethren, can discern no difference. " Singing hymns is 
preaching " in their estimation, and " praying is also preach 
ing;" and, despite all remonstrance, the two missionaries 
are taken away, to find such rest as they may in the dark, 
comfortless dungeon dignified with the name of the " City 
Cage." On the following day the younger of the two is set 
at liberty by the magistrates, while the elder, as the master 



210 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

of the house where the crime has been committed, is held 
guilty of holding a religious service after the hours prescribed 
by the law, and is sentenced to a month s confinement in the 
common jail, his wife being permitted, as an act of grace, to 
share the imprisonment of her husband. 

The next day is the Sabbath, when Mr. F., one of the 
newly arrived missionaries, the married man of the party, 
opens his commission in the new scene of his labours, 
another of the party occupying the pulpit in the afternoon. 
But the joy of all is damped by thoughts of the faithful 
pastor who is spending the sacred hours of the Sabbath 
within the walls of a prison, and many prayers, " uttered 
and unexpressed," go up to heaven on behalf of the suffering 
servant of the Lord, and his faithful spouse, who has volun 
tarily immured herself in a gloomy cell, that she may share 
and lighten her husband s privations. Far deeper grief 
would settle upon that congregation of earnest worshippers, 
could they foresee the heavier calamity that is impending 
over them ; and that, before another Sabbath shall summon 
them again to the sanctuary of Jehovah, one of those voices 
to which they have listened with rapt attention, proclaiming 
with soul-stirring eloquence the sublime truths of the 
Gospel, will be hushed in the silence of the grave. None 
dream of the sorrow so close at hand. Into no mind does 
the thought enter that the sweet, thrilling strains of the 
youthful pair, which could charm the persecuted ministers 
of the Cross into forgetfulness of persecutors and persecuting 
laws, will, in a few brief hours only, be heard mingling with 
the songs of angels and the choir above. Yet so it is to be. 
Loving and kind is the wisdom of God that hides the future 
from our vision, and saves us from the untold anguish that 
would accrue to multitudes from knowing the things which 
are to come. 

The Sabbath passes, a day of hallowed delights in the 
service of the sanctuary ; a day which, because of the 
associations linked therewith, is to have a pre-eminent and 
permanent place in the memories of not a few. It is the 
day after the Sabbath, and the third day after the arrival of 



YELLOW-PETER VICTIMS. 211 

the missionary party, when the young wife complains of 
feeling more than she has done before the relaxing influence 
of the tropical climate. A severe frontal headache, and 
pains in the hack and limb?, soon begin to indicate to those 
who are experienced in tropical diseases incident to the 
climate that it is the insidious approach of the fever, so fatal 
within and near the tropics, that has to be resisted. When 
this truth is apprehended, prompt medical treatment is 
resorted to, and skilful nurses with loving hearts and 
willing hands are present to minister with tenderest care 
to all the wants of the patient, and do everything that 
human power can accomplish to alleviate pain, and arrest 
the formidable malady. The few hours that have elapsed 
have made it manifest beyond all doubt that it is the worst 
type of the country fever, the vomito prieto, or yellow 
fever, that is seizing in its deadly grasp all the powers, and 
assailing the life of the young and lovely wife. 

Deep anguish lays hold on the spirit of the anxious 
husband, as the conviction is realized that the loved one, 
who has so recently linked her destiny with his own, and 
given up home and friends and many a comfort and enjoy 
ment to share his arduous toil in the mission field, the 
wife of whose loveable qualities and blooming loveliness he 
has been so proud, is actually under the power of that 
deadly fever of whose terrible ravages he has heard and read 
so much. He endeavours to bear up with manly fortitude 
under the trying visitation, and he calls upon the Giver of 
all grace to aid him. But his heart sinks as he touches 
the burning hand held out with a smile to greet him, 
and sees how gloomy is the expression on the face of the 
medical man, when, after an investigation of all the symp 
toms, he turns away from the bedside of the sufferer. 

More than once during the night he stands at the bedside 
of his wife, and marks the restlessness with which she moves 
the weary limbs, finding no ease in any position. With his 
own hand he applies the moistened cloths to the aching 
brow and throbbing temples, and rejoices to find that in the 
midst of strong pains the utterance of the name which is 
P 2 



212 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

above every name calls forth a sweet responsive smile. He 
cannot comply with the advice so often urged upon him by 
the dark-skinned but pleasant-looking nurses, who move 
about the sick chamber with noiseless step, that " Minister 
had better lie down and rest." The morning dawns, but 
brings no relief to the object of their kind solicitude, no 
abatement of the fever. Neither skin nor pulse indicates 
that any favourable change has taken place, and the doctor 
has no word of encouragement for the anxious husband, who 
attributes to anxiety and want of rest the general feeling 
of indisposition and languor which has crept over him, and 
seems to have enervated all his powers of mind and body. 

As the morning advances this feeling becomes more 
painfully oppressive ; and the day has not passed the 
meridian, when uneasy sensations in the head, back, and 
limbs, a dry heated skin and quickened pulse, admonish 
him that he too is about to succumb to the dread disease 
that has in a few brief hours prostrated the energies of his 
wife, and placed the life so precious to him in danger. He 
looks once more, before consenting to lie down, upon the 
fever-flushed countenance of the being who above all on 
earth is dear to him. She greets him with a loving, languid 
smile ; and he, little supposing that he is never in this life 
to look upon those sweet features again, retires, and lays 
himself down upon the bed, from which he is destined not 
to rise until he is borne to his last long home. 

In his ease the progress of the fever is even more rapid 
than with his suffering partner. The medical man is again 
hastily summoned. Bleeding, blistering, and all those 
potent drugs, with which it is the custom of the times for 
medical practitioners to contend for precious life with the 
fell disease, often with very poor success, are in requisi 
tion. It is in vain : a night of agony is passed, the loving 
nurses seeking by continual cooling applications to afford 
relief; but not the slightest check appears to have been 
given to the disorder. Before the return of another night 
the patient is in a state of delirium ; and when the morning 
dawns the bright yellow hue, which gives the appropriate 



YELLOW-PEVER VICTIMS. 

designation to the deadly malady, has overspread the body 
of the sufferer. The fatal symptom of black vomit soon 
appears, and all hope of recovery is given up. But the 
ruling passion is strong in death. From that fever couch 
sweet snatches of melody resound through the apartment, 
melting all hearts, and carrying home to them the convic 
tion that the hallowed spirit of the dying man of God is 

" Keady wing d for the flight 
To the mansions of light," 

and prepared, through the soul-renewing grace of Jesus, to 
enter with glorious triumph into the realms of endless day. 
" Precious blood ! " " My Jesus ! " " My Saviour ! " " Hea 
ven, my blessed home ! " are the expressions, mingling with 
couplets and verses of the hymns he knew, and loved, and 
sung so well, that dwelt upon his parched and blistering 
lips. Once or twice the name of the loved partner of his 
youth escapes him, followed by the recollection that she 
too is prostrate with the fever. 

On the third day the end draws nigh, and it becomes 
manifest to all that death is there. But the Conqueror 
of death is there also. "Jesus! precious Jesus!" issues 
faintly, but again and again, from the dying lips, and the 
radiant joy of victory overspreads and lights up every 
feature. Suddenly raising himself, with unexpected strength, 
to a sitting position, he shouts, " Jesus ! Glory ! Jesus ! 
Glory ! " and, ejecting a flood of dark matter from his mouth, 
resembling coffee grounds, the dissolved blood which has 
found its way into the stomach, he falls back upon the 
pillow, and the happy spirit, absent from the body, is 
present with its Lord. 

Meanwhile disease and death are doing their work some 
what more slowly upon the other victim, bringing down 
the pride of youthful vigour, and the sweetness of youthful 
beauty, to the tomb. Medical skill has exhausted its 
resources, and tender nursing has done its best ; but not for 
one moment has the fever been arrested in its fatal course. 
One stage of the dire malady has followed another with fear- 



214 EOMAtfCE OF THE MISSION ITELD. 

ful rapidity, and now the last stage has been reached. The 
skin, recently so fresh and lovely with the glow of health 
is now almost of saffron hue, and frequent paroxysms of 
delirium herald the approach of the destroyer. She has been: 
told, soon after the fever seized upon him, when she 
inquired for her husband, that he was not well, and had 
been obliged to retire to bed. But no information has been 
allowed to reach her of the serious character of his illness ; 
nor have the attendants ventured to inform her that he has 
already passed before her to the regions of the blest. It 
was shortly before midnight that the young missionary 
ceased to be numbered with the living; and now several 
hours have fled, and the dawning of a new day will soon 
appear. A group of anxious faces are round the bed ; 
several nurses, with light and tender hands, continually 
change the cloths, dipped in vinegar and water, upon 
the heated brow, alleviate the pain a little, if they can 
do no more. The last fatal symptoms have come on, 
the occasional paroxysms of delirium, and the black vomit, 
generally regarded as the immediate forerunner of dissolu 
tion. But there too is the rejoicing spirit, looking to Jesus, 
and trusting in Jesus, and during lucid intervals warbling, 
in tones of exquisite sweetness, 

" Jesu, Lover of my soul, 

Let me to Thy bosom fly, 
While the nearer waters roll, 

While the tempest still is high : 
Hide me, my Saviour, hide, 

Till the storm of life be past ; 
Safe into the haven guide, 

receive my soul at last ! " 

As they look upon her, after singing with the same 
sweet voice, a verse of " Rock of Ages," the nurses see a 
bright flush of joy overspread her countenance ; and in tones 
of peculiar animation and triumph she exclaims, " They 
are come, the angels have come, and I am going home ! " 
Gazing into what is vacancy to all around, but evidently not 
to her, for her countenance is radiant with rapturous delight, 



YELLOW-PETER VICTIMS. 215 

she suddenly turns to the nurse by her side, and laying her 
hand upon the nurse s arm, while an expression of surprise 
mingles with that of triumphant joy, she exclaims, to the 
astonishment of all present, " You did not tell me that 
Mr. Frith was dead, and that he had gone to heaven before 
me." "How did you know it?" inquires the mother in 
Israel to whom the words are addressed. "I see him. He 
is there among the angels. They are singing, and I hear 
his voice, and he is come to take me to heaven. how 
sweet ! how sweet ! Sweet ! Sweet ! " And the purified 
spirit, as the words become gradually softer, languishes into 
rest, and goes to join the loved one and the blood-washed 
host around the throne, and sing, in nobler, sweeter strains,, 
the praises of redeeming love. 

It is not a climate in which fond affection may linger 
and weep day after day over the remains of the departed 
before they are consigned to the dust. Rapid is the process 
by which the form, so precious to loving hearts, hastens to 
decay. A few brief hours only can be given to the indul 
gence of fond regrets ; and then even love itself hastens to 
hide away what is so dear in the concealment of the grave. 
Side by side, as they, but a few months ago, walked away 
in the fulness of earthly bliss, from the altar at which they 
had exchanged their vows of wedded love, so now they are 
borne to the grave. Lovely and pleasant in their 
lives, in death they are not divided. Large is the 
company of the mourners ; for wide-spread sympathy has 
been awakened through the city towards the persecuted 
church which mourns over the imprisonment of the faith 
ful pastor, and has now been bereaved of a pair of earnest, 
devoted labourers in a single night. Thousands attend the 
bodies to their last resting-place, and listen with chastened 
feelings to the solemn funeral service which closes the 
earthly history of the youthful couple, so suddenly swept 
away from life. Hundreds of sable and swarthy cheeks are 
bedewed with tears, as the sweet strains of the closing 
hymn go up to heaven : 



216 EOMAFCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

" Our friends are gone before 

To that celestial shore ; 
They have left their mates behind, 

They have all the storms outrode ! 
Found the rest we toil to find, 

Lauded in the arms of God." 

On the following day the chapel seems converted into a 
Bochim, while the missionary dwells upon the words, " Them 
also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." Only 
one short week ago, he that now sleeps in the dust stood in 
the pulpit, and in soul-thrilling words, which those who 
listened to them will never forget, delivered his message 
from God, and won some souls to Christ. It was his first 
and last message to that people. There, with his blooming 
partner, he had assisted in the sweet melody of music; 
their rich tones delighting all hearers, and giving them a 
better idea than they had ever conceived before of the 
harmony of the choir above. Now both voices are hushed 
in the silence of the tomb. They have passed away as a 
shadow ; ascended to the glorious spirit-land, there to sing 
before the throne the song of Moses and the Lamb. 

Some will speak for many years of the preacher who came 
from England to preach only one sermon, call them to 
repentance and salvation, and then sink into the dust ; and 
of the beautiful young wife who, when dying, though not 
informed that her husband had gone to the better land before 
her, could distinguish his well-known, well-beloved voice 
in the angel throng that had come to convoy her own happy 
spirit to the Throne of God and of the Lamb. 




XIV. 

THE BAFFLED EXTORTIONER. 

THE infidel who turned his impious war 
Against the walls of Zion, on the rock 
Of ages built, and higher than the clouds, 
Sinned, and received his due reward. 

POLLOK. 

newspaper press is a mighty power both for good and 
evil, and it exercises a wide-spreading influence in the 
creation and control of those events which make up the 
history of the times in which we live. On the one hand, a 
powerful impulse is given hy such publications to the best 
and holiest sympathies of which human nature is susceptible ; 
while, on the other, they awaken and develope with fearful 
intensity all the base and violent passions which find their 
home in the hearts of men. 

Jamaica is no stranger to this influence, though lying far 
away from the great centres of civilization. Within her 
shores a small band of noble hearts, in the face of a hostile 
and powerful combination, have commenced the advocacy of 
those rights which belong to men as such and as British 
subjects. And already unjust and unequal laws, intended to 
buttress and sustain the vile institution of slavery, are 
beginning to give way. These laws impose disability and 
degradation upon all who have any portion of African blood 
flowing in their veins, though even fairer in complexion than 
many of the whites themselves, excluding them from the jury 
box and coroner s inquest, shutting them out from every kind 
of public employment, and even damming up the loving 
sympathies which the white father may be sometimes 
disposed to indulge towards his coloured offspring by pro 
hibiting him, however wealthy and generous he may be, from 



218 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION EIELD. 

bequeathing to them more than a trifling pittance of his 
substance, all beyond that, if so bequeathed, being escheated 
to the crown. 

But there is also here a portion of the newspaper press as 
profligate as ever pandered to oppression and sold itself to 
uphold and work wickedness. Devoted to the interests of 
those who make merchandise of man and wring wealth and 
luxurious enjoyment out of the sweat and blood of the slave, 
there are men associated with the press as unscrupulous as 
men not destitute of intelligence and education can well be ; 
men in whom conscience seems to be extinct, who ignore 
all the claims of truth, righteousness, or humanity. For the 
love of gain, these men unblushingly advocate every kind 
and degree of wrong which the system of slavery involves ; 
and, with inveterate malignity, pour out unceasing abuse upon 
all whose sympathies are supposed to be in favour of those 
hundreds of thousands of wronged children of Africa, who, 
under the British flag, wasted by excessive labour, or hurried 
through a shorter path to the grave by the cat and cart- 
whip, are diminishing with such rapidity as threatens, in a 
few brief years, to effect their extermination. 

Prominent among these are two persons who are associated 
with the "Courant and Public Advertiser," a daily sheet 
that has distinguished itself by a reckless scurrility, which 
has spared none but the slave-holding fraternity by whom it 
is patronized. One of these is the proprietor of the paper, 
an adventurer from some part of Great Britain, who has 
supplied the want of a liberal education by an extensive 
knowledge of men and things. He is shrewd and intelligent, 
of unbounded self-possession and effrontery, and endowed in 
a large degree with that insensibility to danger which graces 
the bull-dog, and is, in men, often mistaken for courage. 
Pugnacious as the animal mentioned, he is ever prompt at a 
quarrel, and little cares he whom it may be with ; and he is 
quite prepared to bring any dispute to the arbitrament of 
the duel. He has been known to have two or three of these 
affairs upon his hands at the same time ; and after shooting 
down one antagonist, making a wife a widow and children 



THE BAFFLED EXTOETIONEE. 219 

fatherless, he has left the field to commence a journey of 
sixty or seventy miles, that he may meet an engagement 
of a similar kind on the following day. He has fought a 
duel with one opponent, and wounded him, and then 
encountered another before leaving the ground. 

By an unconscientious devotion of his columns to planter 
interests, and unmeasured abuse of the missionaries, who are 
toiling to shed light and comfort upon the dark path of the- 
slave, he has secured for his publication the widest circula 
tion of all the papers of the island. It finds its way to> 
every planter s table, and yields to its busy, bustling pro 
prietor a very ample revenue; while at the same time it 
gives him an influence that has secured for him a place in 
the legislature of the colony, where his restless activity, 
associated with a ready utterance, such as few of his co- 
legislators can boast of, enables him to figure as a man of 
mark. 

Connected with him in the subordinate capacity of editor 
is a native of the " Land o Cakes," who possesses all the evil 
attributes of his principal without any of what may be 
regarded as his redeeming qualities. He is altogether a 
lower type of humanity, coarse and vulgar, and wallowing 
habitually in the low, debasing vices which prevail in a slave 
colony. He has the credit of having once occupied the 
position of paymaster in the army, and of having forfeited 
that position in a way that tarnished the lustre of his repu 
tation for strict integrity. An outcast from really respect 
able society, he has become the hireling panderer to the 
ignorant, godless prejudices of the slave-driving class. 
Monstrous inventions, and ribaldry of the lowest kind, 
commend the " Courant " to their patronage; and these 
savoury morsels, it is well understood, are the productions 
of Bruce, who makes no secret of the unbridled malignity 
with which he regards the missionaries. 

Under the conduct of these men, the " Courant " news 
paper has outstripped all its compeers in the race for popular 
favour, not, however, by the superior talent which it 
displays ; though, in addition to its able proprietor, it can. 



220 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

boast of the rector of St. Ann s and the minister of the Scotch 
Kirk as contributors to its columns. It is popular, because 
it is adapted in its immoral tone to the low tastes of the 
planters, and in the incessant abuse also which ifc pours 
upon the ministers of the crown, who have adopted measures 
that tend avowedly to the abolition of the sin and shame of 
slavery, which dishonours the national escutcheon. It 
continually vilifies the leading philanthropists of the day, 
who are arousing the conscience of the British nation to 
overthrow the system, as also all the evangelical churches 
of Britain, whose influence is thrown into the same 
scale. And in all this it is the exponent of the views and 
sentiments of those who live and fatten upon the forced 
unrequited labour of their fellow men. From day to day 
the paper teems with articles advocating sedition and rebel 
lion against the imperial government, the expulsion and 
murder of the missionaries, the Methodist missionaries in 
particular, and the transfer of the colony to the United 
States. Thus it fosters and gives an impulse to the 
ferocious and vindictive passions of the planters, already 
sunk very low, under the embruting influence of a system 
which tends more than anything else to assimilate men to 
fiends. And thus it prepares them for those deeds of 
persecuting violence, which are destined to be the principal 
means of sweeping away the curse of human bondage from 
the British empire, by arousing the nation to demand its 
overthrow. 

Situated in the eastern part of the city of Kingston, there 
stands a large and beautiful chapel ; a brick building, with 
stone cornices and pilasters. Lofty and massive, it forms 
one of the principal ornaments of the city, and the interior 
exhibits an imposing appearance. It is surrounded on all 
sides by galleries deep and with considerable slope, the whole 
of the galleries being arranged in pews, while the lower 
floor is covered with fixed benches designed for the free 
use of the poorer part of the congregation. A double 
row of fluted columns, with Corinthian capitals, and a deep 
entablature, support the lofty ceiling. A corresponding 



THE BAITLED EXTOKTIONEK. 221 

series of columns support the galleries, the lower entablature 
being surmounted by massive handrail and turned balus 
trades. The whole of these, with the cornices which surround 
the entire building, both above the gallery and beneath it, 
and the architraves of the windows and doors, are of 
varnished mahogany, the growth of the country, and impart 
to the structure a rich and imposing appearance. The pulpit, 
which is somewhat too lofty, and the reading desk in front 
of it, both somewhat of the lotus shape, are of the richest 
native mahogany, beautiful in colour and grain, and 
elaborately polished. Both pulpit and desk are accessible 
by means of a geometrical staircase, light, airy, and graceful, 
winding round the front of the pulpit, between it and the 
reading desk. 

This noble structure, the work of a native architect, and 
not yet completely finished, has been recently erected to 
meet the necessities of the work, which, in the face of 
reproach and persecution, has so prospered that the largest 
sanctuary the Methodists have in the island will not contain, 
when crowded, half the communicants belonging to it. 
Desirous of possessing a building sufficiently commodious to 
receive the large numbers that assemble at missionary meet 
ings and other extraordinary services, the erection of this 
handsome sanctuary was resolved on ; and the design has been 
carried through with a degree of energy and liberality that 
show the interest with which the undertaking is regarded 
by all classes of the people. There are a few whites 
connected with the society; but it consists principally 
of the free coloured people and the slaves. And all have 
come forward with a noble munificence, supplying the 
funds as they have been wanted ; and a sanctuary, ample in 
its dimensions, and unsurpassed in tastefulness and beauty 
by any that rest upon the soil of this spacious colony, 
now furnishes the accommodation so long and so earnestly 
desired. 

It is the afternoon of a day near the end of July, the 
fierce tropic heat of which is chastened and modified by a 
cool, refreshing sea breeze. For the free admission of cool 



222 BOMANCE OE THE MISSION FIELD. 

air, every window and door is thrown open as widely 
as possible. A large congregation is assembled, filling the 
spacious building in every part ; the aisles being crowded, 
as well as the seats and pews. All shades of colour are to 
be seen there, from the purest jet of the Negro, to the 
handsome Quadroon, the clear-skinned Mestifeno, and the 
unquestionable European, who is proud of his origin in a 
country where the aristocracy of complexion has firmly 
established itself, and guards its exclusive claims with the 
utmost jealousy. It is a missionary meeting whose attrac 
tions have drawn together the eager crowd of listeners that 
present such an animated appearance on all sides, above and 
below. 

Almost in the centre of the chapel is a platform, so con 
structed as to admit of its occupants being seen and heard 
by all around them. In addition to the ministers, whose 
well known garb marks their character and office, there are 
a number of laymen ; some of whose countenances, though 
radiant with intelligence, exhibit unmistakable traces of 
their relation to Africa, through one side, at least, of their 
parentage. Prominent in the group is the chairman, who 
occupies a seat, slightly raised, near the front of the platform. 
He is the Rev. John Barry ; a tall and portly man, whose 
highly intelligent countenance, a plain index of an open 
genial temper, glows with satisfaction as he surveys the 
multitude around him. This gentleman is to be the hero of 
our tale. He is entitled on that as well as on other grounds 
to a more particular description than our limits enable us to 
afford to others who, like himself, are there to take part in 
a cause linked with the highest destinies of the human 
race. 

Mr. Barry is one of a noble band of labourers contributed 
by the Irish Conference to the missionary enterprise. He 
has been in the island several years ; long enough to win for 
himself, in a land which is the home of persecution, and 
where a ribald press pours contumely on the Christian 
teacher of the slave and coloured population, the homage 
which only eminent talent can command. A faithful and 



THE BAFELED EXTORTIONEK. 223 

earnest preacher of the cross, he is gentle and urbane to all, 
master and slave alike. Possessing the graces of an Apollos- 
like oratory, enriched with flashes of wit and humour, 
which have their home nowhere more properly than in the 
Emerald Isle, Mr. Barry stands unrivalled in pulpit popu 
larity; and delighted thousands throng to listen to those 
strains of Christian eloquence which dwell upon his lips. It 
is not only because of the Christian love and respect che 
rished towards him by his ministerial brethren, that he has 
been requested by them to preside over the meeting. 
Humours are afloat that something is plotting amongst the 
persecutors of religion in the city, and that the meeting is 
likely to be interrupted on some pretext or other ; and in 
such case, both the judgment and self-possession of Mr. 
Barry may safely be relied on. 

That this rumour is not groundless is manifest when the 
ministers take their places upon the platform. As Mr. Barry 
casts his eye around, there, in a prominent place in the gal 
lery, overlooking the platform, in one of the passages, is Mr. 
Beaumont, the presiding genius of the " Courant " newspaper. 
Beside him is the man who acts under him as literary scavenger, 
the notorious Bruce, and several others belonging to the 
same class. No sympathy with the objects of the meeting or its 
promoters, no concern about the salvation of the heathen, 
would bring them there. They are the hireling traducers 
of missionary labourers, the blasphemers of all good men, 
and the enemies of all righteousness. Upon the plat 
form, within a few feet of the chairman, is a missionary 
who, attenuated by persecution almost to a skeleton, has 
only just been released from a filthy dungeon, to which he 
has been consigned for preaching the truth. And these 
men in the gallery have hounded on the persecutors, and 
denounced, in language of unmeasured bitterness, both the 
living sufferer for righteousness sake, and his martyred com 
panion in suffering, who, wasted and worn out by the bru 
tality and privation to which he was subjected, in a prison 
reeking with filth and poisonous odours, has sunk rapidly 
into the grave. No ; it is not for any good purpose these 



224 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

men, who never enter a Christian sanctuary, except, perhaps, 
to take part in a funeral ceremony, are there. And that is 
well understood by the masses around. Beaumont and 
Bruce are well known to all the people as the daily libellers 
of the missionaries ; and many eyes are directed to the spot 
which they occupy. 

Nor is it with entire complacency that their presence 
is regarded by some of the congregation. There are persons 
there who are not directly associated with the mission 
church, but have parents, relatives, and friends who have 
identified themselves therewith. There are not a few young 
men of colour, intelligent and high-spirited, whose indigna 
tion has been often aroused by the unscrupulous attacks 
made upon the missionaries and all associated with them by 
these two men, in the columns of the newspaper with which 
they are identified. And there is a light kindling in many 
eyes now bent upon the intruders, which shows that it will 
be a dangerous experiment for those bad men to attempt any 
interruption of the proceedings of the meeting. 

Devotional exercises precede what is more especially the 
business of the occasion. These being closed, the chairman 
delivers an address, characterized by the graceful eloquence 
for which he is distinguished, and then resumes his seat. 
After a financial and statistical report has been presented to 
the meeting, a speaker, rising to the call of the chairman, 
advances to the front of the platform, and proceeds to 
address the meeting. He is announced as the missionary 
from Morant Bay, a place that has since acquired a painful 
notoriety as the scene of horrors and atrocities which cast a 
dark shadow upon the honour of the British nation. When 
his name is pronounced by the chairman, he stands forth, a 
sturdy, fine-looking man, whose handsome coal-black hair 
and whiskers would scarcely indicate that he derives his 
origin from the north side of the Tweed. Yet, such is the 
fact. Years ago, every town and village in the United 
Kingdom resounded with the war notes of the pibroch or 
the fife and drum, summoning the youth of the land to the 
battle fields of the Continent. Having scarcely crossed the 



THE EAJTLED EXTORTIOtfEB. 225 

line that separates youth from manhood, he had left his 
own mountain land ; and, with the kilted heroes who strug 
gled and triumphed in many a bloody field, he marched to 
the Peninsula. There, under Wellington, he assisted in the 
protracted struggle which exercised so powerful an influence 
on the destinies of Europe, until he fell, shot through the 
neck, and ended his military career before the walls of Tou 
louse. Awakened and brought to God, while associated with 
the army, through the pious labours of the godly Captain 
Hawtrey, he has been devoted, after needful preparation, to 
the arduous labours of a missionary in Jamaica ; a vocation 
which, in these days of reproach and persecution, requires 
true soldiers of the cross. 

One subject to which the chairman has alluded, fraught 
with profound interest to the meeting, is the opposition which 
the slave-holding magistrates in the north-side parish of St. 
Ann s, led on by the rector, who is notorious for cruelty to 
his own slaves, are making to the establishment of the mis 
sion there. Already one devoted missionary has sunk into a 
premature grave, health and life exhausted in the filthy 
dungeon to which these men had consigned him. And 
another, now on the platform, has escaped a similar fate only 
by possessing greater powers of endurance ; having boldly 
asserted his privileges as a British subject, and shown that 
he is resolved to yield only with life his right of holding 
forth the Word of God to the wretched slave. 

With unmistakeable Scottish accent, and with a good deal 
of humour, the speaker dwells upon the vain efforts of these 
magisterial persecutors to shut out the influences of the 
Gospel from their slaves. This produces no little excite 
ment among the knot of persecutors in the gallery. The 
speaker proceeds to relate an anecdote concerning the rector 
cf a certain parish in England, who waited upon the old 
squire to consult as to what he should do respecting the 
introduction of Methodism into the parish. The squire, 
with characteristic dryness, replied, " Get them out as fast 
as possible ; for, if they once get a footing in the parish, the 
devil himself won t get them out again." The excitement 

Q 



226 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

amongst the party in the gallery is increased, and it is with 
great difficulty that Mr. Beaumont is prevented from getting 
up at this point to interrupt the proceedings of the meeting. 
His followers, however, seem to think it is a case in which 
discretion is the better part of valour. The sympathies of 
the assembly have been so thoroughly aroused by the 
speaker s remarks, that it will scarcely be a safe experiment 
for them, well known as abettors of the persecuting magis 
trates, to make any offensive demonstration. 

Other speakers then address the meeting, amongst whom 
are the Baptist missionary of the city, and one, also a canny 
Scotchman, whose evidence, given before the Committees of 
both branches of the imperial parliament a few years later, 
is destined, together with that of the chairman, Mr. Barry, 
to exert no small influence in determining the final settle 
ment of the slavery question by the complete overthrow of 
the atrocious system. Most of the speakers refer to the 
recent persecutions in St. Ann s. But Mr. Duncan has what 
is called the collection speech ; and it appears to be exces 
sively galling to the little knot of opposers that the auditory 
is greatly amused, while the speaker shows that the St. 
Ann s magistrates are really helping the cause they strive 
to hinder and suppress. To such an extent have the sym 
pathies of the people in that parish, slave and free, been 
aroused, that they have sent a contribution of 97 to sustain 
the missionary work. After urging the people to be liberal 
in their contributions, Mr. Duncan returns to his seat. 

At this juncture a strange voice is heard, and all eyes are 
directed towards the gallery from whence it proceeds. It is 
the well-known proprietor of the "Courant" newspaper. 
Claiming to be a magistrate, and to act in that capacity in 
rising to disperse the meeting, he proceeds to denounce the 
assembly as riotous and seditious, because several of the 
speakers have referred to the St. Ann s magistrates as im 
prisoning missionaries illegally for preaching the Gospel to 
the slaves, and have ridiculed the attempts which they have 
made to expel Christian teachers from the parish, and shut 
up the thousands of their bondsmen in heathen night. 



THE BAFFLED EXTORTIONER. 227 

This interruption of the proceedings, although not unex 
pected, has excited no little indignation, especially amongst 
the young coloured men of the congregation, well 
aware that Beaumont and his friends are there for some 
mischievous purpose, and very little disposed to brook 
their interference on such an occasion and in such a place. 
Mr. Beaumont and his knot of coadjutors would, in a few 
moments, be very summarily ejected, but for the interposition 
of the chairman, to whom the interrupter of the meeting, 
pale with fear, appeals for protection. He sees that the 
whole congregation have risen to their feet, and that several 
sturdy men are preparing to leave their pews ; and he marks 
well the indignant expression of many countenances around 
him. He now finds out that he has committed himself to 
a hazardous experiment in attempting to interfere with the 
proceedings of the meeting, and is in danger of being 
somewhat roughly handled ; and he calls loudly upon the 
chairman to protect him. A few words from Mr. Barry are 
sufficient to induce all to subside into their seats ; and 
laughingly repudiating Mr. Beaumont s notion, that he has 
a right to break up the meeting as a seditious and riotous 
assembly, he requests that all will listen quietly to what the 
gentleman may choose to say. 

The meeting is at once calmed down by the few judicious 
words proceeding from the chairman. Not so Mr. Beaumont. 
Strange to say, his usually indomitable self-possession has 
forsaken him. Pale and nervous with excitement, it is with 
difficulty he can get out a few words about the assembly 
being riotous and seditious, robbing the slaves, and holding 
up magistrates to ridicule and contempt. And then he 
and his friends hastily leave the chapel, amidst the laughter 
of the whole congregation, feeling that their absurd attempt 
to interfere with the Methodist meeting, which they went 
to break up, has terminated in exposing them to the ridicule 
of the whole community. 

The next day, the columns of the " Courant " newspaper are 
largely occupied with what professes to be a report of the 
missionary meeting at Thames Street Chapel. All the 



228 BOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

speakers are treated most bountifully with the scurrilous 
abuse and misrepresentation in which the " Courant " editor 
and proprietor are thoroughly efficient, through long practice. 
The missionaries and their work are vituperated with such 
unmeasured bitterness, as shows how deeply mortified they 
are with the failure of their mischievous effort to disturb and 
break up the missionary meeting. Denounced as secret 
agents of the Anti-Slavery Society, as disloyal to the 
government, as endeavouring to stir up the slaves to rebellion, 
as robbing the Negroes of their small savings, as firebrands 
that ought to be extinguished at any risk, the Methodist 
preachers are held up to the hatred of the entire slave- 
driving community, as too dangerous to be suffered to exist 
in the colony. On the other hand, the St. Ann s magistrates 
in particular are lauded for their patriotic efforts to rid the 
island of such pests, and put a stop to their preaching. 

A temperate, well-written letter from Mr. Barry, inserted 
in the "Kingston Chronicle" of the following day, corrects the 
wild exaggerations and misstatements of the " Courant," and 
informs those who were not present, of what really took 
place at the missionary meeting. This cannot well be done 
without presenting the conduct of Mr. Beaumont and his 
followers in such a light as turns the laugh upon them on 
all sides, and the baffled experimenters find it hard to endure 
the jeers and scoffs of their boon companions, who rally 
them unsparingly on " the failure of their crusade against 
the Methodist parsons," and on their being " compelled to 
beat an ignominious retreat." 

But the principal of the " Courant " office is not a man to be 
easily put out of countenance ; nor is he inclined to sit down 
tamely under his defeat. He finds it impossible to make 
out any thing like a charge of holding a riotous assembly, 
or uttering seditious language, though well disposed to do 
so. For, after all, the utmost that could be proved would be, 
that some of the speakers held up, in a ridiculous point of 
view, the fruitless attempts of the St. Ann s magistrates to 
prevent the spread of the truth amongst the slaves, by perse 
cuting and imprisoning missionaries. It would be hopeless, 



THE BAFFLED EXTORTIONEB. 229 

with such a man upon the bench as now fills the office of 
-chief justice, to attempt to press any such charge. But 
something may be done with the law of libel, and a jury of 
Jamaica white men, with their well-known hatred to the 
missionaries and their work. Mr. Barry s letter is eagerly 
scanned, in the hope that something may be selected, from 
the caustic remarks which have made the " Courant " editors 
and their party a laughing-stock in the colony, that may be 
tortured into ground for an action of libel. 

" Ah ! here is something that will do ! This may serve 
the purpose, and I may succeed in making a planter jury 
believe that he has uttered a false, scandalous, and malicious 
libel, in saying, concerning me, Augustus Hardin Beaumont, 
That I laughed at the gentleman s threat of dissolving the 
meeting, I readily admit ; and I do not remember at any 
time to have seen magisterial dignity so completely sunk. " 
Upon the charge of libel founded on this extract, the 
offended editor of the " Courant," as he can find nothing 
that will suit his purpose better, resolves to arraign Mr. 
Barry, the chairman of the meeting, before a Jamaica court 
and jury. 

Eight months have passed away, and another scene 
presents itself to our view. The place is the assize court of 
the county of Surrey ; and it is thronged in every part by 
eager spectators of all hues. Not a few whites are there, 
including the principal mercantile and professional resident?, 
who constitute the aristocracy of the city of Kingston. 
Some of these exhibit, in their peculiar type of countenance, 
the unmistakeable marks of having derived their origin from 
the illustrious Chaldean who was honoured with the designa 
tion, " The friend of God." The full-blood African, the Sambo, 
the Mulatto, the Quadroon, the Mestee, and the Mestifeno, 
who claims by law the privilege of being considered white, 
all are there. And all exhibit an unusual degree of interest 
and expectation ; for the cause of " Beaumont versus Barry " 
is to be tried, an action for libel, and it understood that both 
parties, dispensing with counsel, will plead for themselves. 

With the plaintiff, this is nothing unusual ; for, being of 



230 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION JFIELD. 

a pugnacious and litigious disposition, there is seldom an 
assize^ court held in the county, but he is before it, either as 
plaintiff or defendant; and he prides himself upon his 
forensic ability and cleverness. With the defendant it is 
different ; but his trust is in the righteousness of his cause, 
and in the promised help of the Divine Master, whose servant 
he is. He has some confidence in the integrity of the 
presiding judge. Three judges occupy the bench, two of 
whom are non-professionals, one being a merchant in the city 4 
and the other connected with the press ; it being the custom 
to appoint the puisne judges of the grand court from the 
local gentry. Both are held in esteem as highly intelligent 
and gentlemanly men ; but being more or less mixed up with 
the planting interest, and both of them owners of slaves, 
there is no doubt that their prepossessions will be in favour 
of Mr. Beaumont. But the chief justice is one whose 
integrity in his high office is not to be doubted. He is a 
Creole, that is, a native of the country ; and has won his way 
to eminence at the bar, and ultimately to the bench. He is 
but little, if at all, inferior to his elder brother, also a Jamaican 
judge, whose splendid forensic abilities have enabled him to 
achieve the high office of attorney-general of England, and 
will shortly after raise him to the bench, and enable him, a 
peer of the realm, to take his place among that illustrious 
list of English judges, whose eminent talents and incorrupti 
ble integrity, during the last two centuries, have not only 
reflected lustre upon the country where they have shone 
as some of its brightest ornaments, but inspired a degree of 
confidence in the administration of the laws, unparalleled 
in any other nation of the world. It is the younger 
brother of Sir James Scarlett, attorney-general of England, 
afterwards Lord Abinger, who fills the office of chief 
justice of Jamaica. He also has received from his 
majesty the honour of knighthood ; and presides over the 
administration of justice in the colony with an ability and 
impartiality never surpassed, perhaps never equalled, by any 
of his predecessors. 

His presence on the bench is to Mr. Barry, who knows. 



THE BAFFLED EXTORTIONER. 231 

him to be a man who fears and loves God, a guarantee that 
neither planter interests nor sectarian prejudices will, so far 
as the presiding judge can prevent it, be allowed to interfere 
with the fair administration of justice. The jury already im 
panelled is not much to be relied on. Jamaica juries are at the 
period of our narrative largely composed of a class of men, with 
whom the sanctity of an oath is not a very weighty considera 
tion. They consist principally of planters ; men whose moral 
sense is blunted, if not destroyed, by the closest contact with 
slavery, and who become in many instances as embruted as 
human beings can be, by having to do with the adminis 
tration of this loathsome system of injustice and cruelty. 
But they are not all of this class. Several of those 
impanelled in the jury box belong to the mercantile class in 
the city. Though all are white men, for the time has not 
yet come when a man tinged with African blood is permitted 
to act as a juryman, yet these are persons whose residence in 
the city has given them a better opportunity of understand 
ing the true character both of the " Courant" editors and the 
missionaries than their planter coadjutors. They are men 
who may be expected to do right. 

The charge having been read by the clerk of the court, 
accusing the defendant of "having wrongfully, falsely, 
maliciously, and injuriously composed, wrote, and caused to 
be composed, written, and published, in a certain newspaper, 
called the Kingston Chronicle and Jamaica Journal, a certain 
false, malicious and defamatory libel of and concerning the 
said plaintiff," &c., &c.; Mr. Beaumont rises to open his 
case, and commences thus : 

" May it please your honours; gentlemen of the jury ; 
you are to decide upon an action instituted by me, as a 
magistrate of the city, against a Methodist preacher. The 
record avers, 1. That I was a magistrate of Kingston. 
(Mr. Beaumont was a corporation magistrate only, but quite 
disposed to magnify his office.) 2. That, whilst I held this 
office, the defendant and numerous other persons were riotously 
and unlawfully assembled together in this city. 3. That 
as I was required by my office, I interfered to put an end to 



232 BOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

this unlawful assembly, as it is averred it was my duty to do, 
4. That, the defendant, intending to injure my reputation 
as a magistrate of this city, and to misrepresent my conduct 
in reminding him of his violation of the law, a few days after 
published a libel, accusing me of having degraded my office 
on the occasion of my interference with himself and other 
sectarian preachers, his companions, who, as ifc will be proved 
to vou, were engaged, in open violation of the law, stirring 
up "a multitude of slaves and free persons of colour to acts 
of insurbordination, by political harangues, in a place which 
was generally supposed to be one appropriated for religious 
purposes exclusively, and in which capacity alone it was 
recognised by the law of the island." 

He then proceeds with an address fraught with abuse and 
invective, making frequent reference to the case of Smith 
(the martyred missionary) of Demerara ; and leaving no 
doubt upon any intelligent hearer s mind that he relies, for 
success in this action, upon the well known prejudices against 
missionaries which possess the public mind, and which he has 
fostered to the utmost in his newspaper. Having rung the 
changes at great length upon "riotous and seditious assem 
blies," "turning magistrates into ridicule," "plundering 
the slaves," &c., &c., and appealing with all the power of 
which he is capable to their interest in the maintenance of 
slavery and their jealousy of and prejudice against the mis 
sionary teachers of the Negro, he proceeds to call his 
witnesses. 

First there is Mr. Gutzmer, the chief of the city police ; 
then Bruce, the editor of the " Courant " newspaper, and some 
half dozen others, by whose testimony the plaintiff endea 
vours to prove that the orderly and harmless missionary 
meeting was a seditious and riotous assembly. But unfor 
tunately for him, on being subjected to a close cross-exami 
nation by Mr. Barry, no two of them can agree together as 
to the precise language used by any of the speakers. All 
that they can testify is, that " something was said about 
the missionaries and the St. Ann s magistrates, and their 
not being more clever than the devil in getting the mission- 



THE BAFFLED EXTOETIONEK. 233 

aries driven out of the parish." All are constrained to 
acknowledge that there was nothing in the least degree 
riotous and disorderly ; only a little laughter and cheering 
when the speakers said anything that pleased the congre 
gation. And their testimony goes clearly to show that 
there was nothing to require Mr. Beaumont s interference 
as a magistrate, but that it was altogether gratuitous 
and uncalled for. 

There are no more witnesses to bring forward, except two 
or three of the aldermen of the city, to bear testimony that 
during the brief period since Mr. Beaumont was invested 
with magisterial dignity by his election as an alderman, he 
has conducted himself in the office with propriety. The 
case has utterly failed so far as it was designed to show that 
he was justified in displaying his magisterial authority by 
interrupting the proceedings of the missionary meeting. 

The bustling little man, so confident a little while before 
that he might rely for a verdict upon the strong prejudices 
and prepossessions of the jury against the accused Methodist 
parson, has evidently become fidgetty and nervous. He is not 
much re-assured by the expression which he is acute enough 
to read on the countenances of the jury. They do not look 
exactly as he would like to see them. Still less does he like 
the calm self-possession of his antagonist. A broad smile 
overspreading his fine, good-humoured face, and the light of 
superior intelligence gleaming from his eye, there he sits 
within a few feet of his accuser, as calm and unmoved as if 
the practice of a court of law were his every-day vocation ; 
not a muscle of his countenance disturbed by the envenomed 
.accusations with which he has been assailed. 

The plaintiff announces that his case is closed. Then 
Mr. Barry rises to state that he will call no witnesses. 
This announcement produces a strange effect on the plaintiff. 
Already become very anxious about the success of his cause, 
which, he feels, has begun to wear a dubious aspect, he is 
wrought up to a state of violent excitement when he finds 
that he is out-generalled by the placid gentleman opposed 
to him. For the course which the defendant proposes to 



234 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION TIELD. 

take cuts him off from the right of reply. He foams at the 
mouth with rage, as, starting from his seat, he insists that 
the defendant must stand or fall by the law, which he, the 
plaintiff, has quoted as applicable to the case. Not so. 
With a coolness exhibiting a striking contrast to the 
excitement of the plaintiff, Mr. Barry asserts his right also 
to produce quotations from the law, upon which his adversary 
may, if he chooses to do so, give his opinion, before 
he, Mr. Barry, proceeds to address the court and jury in 
defence. The court, notwithstanding the violent objections 
raised by the plaintiff, affirms the right that is claimed. 
The books Mr. Barry is about to quote from are handed 
over to the plaintiff, who brings upon himself the rebuke of 
the court by attempting to obliterate the memoranda and 
remove the marks made by Mr. Barry to facilitate his 
reference to the authorities he intends to cite. The presiding 
judge, observing this, remarks, " O, Mr. Beaumont ! it 
must be a very bad cause indeed that requires such conduct 
as that." The law quotations are then read by Mr. Barry, 
proving that the missionary meeting was neither riotous nor 
seditious, that the plaintiff had no right whatever to interfere 
with its proceedings, and that there was nothing in the words 
in question that rendered them liable to be regarded as 
libellous. 

Deprived of the important last word, by Mr. Barry 
declining to call witnesses, the irritated plaintiff attempts to 
pour ridicule upon the authorities quoted by his adversary, 
and endeavours to persuade the jury that those authorities, 
relative to riots and riotous assemblies, are founded upon 
British laws not extending to the island. He then proceeds 
further to appeal to the pro-slavery and sectarian prejudices 
which he assumes the jury to possess : " That the defendant 
is not less entitled to your justice because he is a sectarian 
preacher is undoubted ; he possesses the same rights as I do, 
but no more. He is not permitted, because he is a sectarian 
preacher, to assemble a large multitude of slaves, and, in a 
house sanctioned for religious purposes only, excite them 
to disaffection and sedition by describing the magistracy of 



TiLE BAFFLED EXTORTIONER. 285 

the country as fools and devils. It would be no answer for 
Mr. Barry to say that he did not use this language ; he 
presided at an assembly when this language was used, and 
in the eye of the law he is equally guilty. I, as a magistrate, 
had a duty to fulfil which the law imposed, and I, by my 
oath of office, was sworn to perform. That duty was not 
less imperative on me because I was a proprietor of a news- 
paper, and Mr. Barry a Methodist preacher. His illegal 
acts were not thereby justified ; my duty was not less. 
imperative ; for having fearlessly and honestly performed it, 
I am not less entitled to your protection, and to have my 
rights vindicated by you. That my conduct as a magistrate 
is correct, I have proved ; that I have always conducted 
myself with integrity, and that I have never lowered the 
office, is proved by the testimony of gentlemen whose 
applause is honour ; and certainly is not to be sunk to a 
comparison with the slanders of men who, under the pretence 
of teaching Christianity, turn the temple of God into a 
Stock Exchange alley, who barter the character of the 
magistracy of the island for gold dollar pieces, pistoles, 
any thing that is not short of a maccaroni," (a slang term for 
a quarter dollar,) "and who have made the house of God a 
place of money-changers. Was this the object of our laws, 
when the legislature of Britain passed the Toleration Acts, 
and allowed such men as the defendant to propagate their 
opinions of Christianity ? Did it mean to give them a 
charter, a monopoly of extortion ? Did it authorize the 
defendant and his compeers to vilify the magistracy, to 
barter away their reputations for any thing not short of a 
maccaroni ; or to preach sedition, nonsense, and obscenity ? 
Is this Christianity ? Is this the religion your slaves are to 
be taught ? Is this the religion which the Founder of the 
Christian code established ? Did the Saviour of mankind 
teach His disciples to ask for dollar pieces, pistoles, any 
thing not short of a maccaroni ? No ; we find it thus 
written in Matthew, Mark, and Luke : * And Jesus went 
into the temple, and cast out all those that sold and bought 
in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money- 



23G ROMANCE OF THIS MISSION FIELD. 

changers; and He taught, saying unto them, Is it not 
written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of 
prayer ? but ye have made it a den of thieves. Such was 
the opinion of the Founder of the Christian religion of the 
seekers after any thing not short of a maccaroni. 

" This trial is of no common importance. If you allow 
that defendant to pass unpunished, no magistrate, in future, 
will dare to perform his duty. In this question, it matters not 
whether the magistrates of St. Ann s, whom this defendant 
and his coadjutors vilified, had performed their duty or not. 
It is true these magistrates were, on ex-parte accusation, 
without the form of a trial, and without being allowed to 
utter one word in their own defence, expelled the magistracy 
by the late lieutenant-governor, for an act which the statute 
law of the island had required them to perform.* But even 
if the conscience of these punished, though untried, magis 
trates was censurable, was the defendant permitted to turn 
* the house of God, as they call it, not only into a place of 
money-changing, of buying and selling, or such a place as, 
in Scripture, is emphatically called a den of thieves ; but also 
into a court of political and judicial inquiry, where the 
reverend defendant presided like another Caiaphas, or rather 
Pontius Pilate, immolating the character of the magistracy 
to propitiate the pathos of the assembled multitude, and to 
gather * every thing not short of a maccaroni, or, as another 
preacher said, l even five-pence pieces ? * 

" The defendant has complimented the mayor and the 
rest of the magistracy of this city, while he was depreciating 
me. This is easily accounted for. Few of my associates 
in the magistracy like to encounter the animosity of the 
gatherers of the maccaronies. I have defied their wrath 
and done my duty. I claim vindication for the wrong done 
me for discharging my public office. It is no answer to say 
that I have sustained no pecuniary injury. Were this rule 

* The St. Ann s magistrates referred to had been dismissed from 
office for abusing their authority, and violating the law, in commit- 
ting missionaries to gaol for preaching the Gospel, one of whom had 
died in consequence of their illegal proceedings. 



THE BAFPLED EXTOETIOtfER. 237 

to be established, then the higher a man s character for 
talent and honesty puts him beyond the reach of the force 
of the calumniator s arrows, the more subject is he to be a 
mark for the aim of his traducers. But, gentlemen, this is 
not law, and it is not reason or justice. Besides, we all know 
serious injury is done by these slanderers. We all have 
seen a commission sent out to a custos of another parish on 
similar fabrications, and we have seen the colonial character 
traduced by sectarians, as is admitted in the defendant s 
letter. 

" In no country has prejudice less hold than in Jamaica. 
We have seen one of our judges, in his capacity as a member 
of assembly, advocating, and successfully advocating, with 
all his energies, the support of the Kirk of Scotland in this 
country, though he was himself attached to the Episcopalian 
Church of England. Here was a proof of liberal feeling. 
He acted thus, because he considered that he was promoting 
the knowledge of the essentials of true religion. Would this 
judge have done this, had such conduct been followed in the 
kirk as I have proved was pursued in the tabernacle of the 
sectarians? Would he not rather have sought to uproot 
it for ever ? * 

" In bringing this defendant before you, I have completed 
my public duty. My knowledge of recent events had con 
vinced me that factious doctrines from, the pulpifc had caused 
the rebellion and consequent slaughter at Demerara. My 
knowledge of law had taught me that these factious preach 
ments were not only dangerous, but unlawful. My knowledge 
of Christianity has instructed me that such acts were those 
of thieves, not of Christians. My oath of office required me 
to suppress such assemblies, and I honestly performed my 
duty. I gave my antagonist the opportunity of showing 
that his libel was true. He has failed in doing so. He has 
this day been proved to be a man aiding others in getting 

* The minister of the kirk in question was a man who, possessing 
some ability, sold himself notoriously to uphold human slavery, and 
frequently in a private way vilified the missionaries through the 
columns of the " Courant." 



238 EOMANCB OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

money by extortion, under pretence of teaching Christianity ; 
making the house of God a den of public robbers. I have 
fully proved the falsity of his slander on my conduct. I 
have shown that his slander has all the essentials of a libel, 
its falsehood, its malice, its venality. 

" Whether I am a fit man to hold magisterial office, is not 
to be determined by such men as the defendant. The law, 
and the guardians of that law, some of the most respected 
and honoured men of Jamaica, who elected me to that office* 
have decided that I am fit to hold this station ; and you 
have heard the honourable testimony these men have this 
day given in my favour. Unless you mean to sanction such 
conduct as that proved against the defendant ; unless you 
mean to allow him, and others like him, to extort money 
from your slaves ; to denounce the magistrates, from their 
pulpits, as devils and fools ; to emulate Smith the mission 
ary, and to turn Jamaica into another Demerara ; unless 
you intend to prevent any magistrate from daring to sup 
press their seditious, extortionate harangues, you will find 
this defendant guilty, and assess him in the full amount of 
2,000 sought, giving to himself and the whole herd of 
preachers this salutary lesson, that, not even to gather up 
the dollar pieces, and * any thing not short of a maccaroni, 
will they be permitted to preach sedition, instead of the 
Gospel, to our slaves. 

" The damages will not be borne by Mr. Barry alone, but 
by the whole body which he represents ; the corporation, 
the company, the federal band of maccaroni hunters, as well 
in Thames Street, Kingston, as elsewhere. All will contri 
bute to release their beloved brother from the consequences 
of a heavy verdict ; the consequences of seeking too 
anxiously after every thing not short of a maccaroni. I am 
sure you do not intend to encourage the sectarians preaching 
sedition and extorting money, and, at the same time, to cen 
sure and punish the magistrate who has attempted to compel 
them to obey, not himself, but the law. I have placed 
myself foremost in the breach made by such men as the 
defendant in the constitution of the country. All their 



THE EAEFLED EXTOETIONEB. 230 

energies are directed against me. I look to be supported by 
the juries of Jamaica in resisting the invasions made upon 
her rights by the legions of cant, extortion, and sedition. 
Never forget that the sedition of Smith, a missionary in 
Demerara, occasioned the revolt amongst the slaves in that 
country. Neglect me ; allow me to be trampled on by those 
whose assaults on the citadel of our laws I have sought to 
repel ; then their attack must be successful. Your slaves 
will be taught sedition ; they will learn to rebel, and your 
lives and fortunes will be sacrificed. As your laws perish, so 
must yourselves, your wives and children, fall. I have ful 
filled my duty ; but mine is an inferior ministerial office in 
the temple of justice. I have bound that defendant about 
and about with the bonds of the law. I have dragged the 
seditious extortioner before you. Yours is the arm of jus 
tice ; let it fall upon this public offender ; this chairman of 
those whom the Bible calls a den of thieves ; this public 
extortioner ; this public robber ; this robber of the poor ; 
this robber of the slave." 

Exhausted with the delivery of this grandiloquent invec 
tive, into which he has thrown all the ability and address he 
can command, the injured (?) magisterial dignitary subsides 
into his seat. Mr. Barry, who seems to be but little the 
worse for the thunder which, for more than an hour, has 
been rolling about his head, rises to commence his defence 
in the following terms : 

" May it please your honours ; gentlemen of the jury ; 
you have heard the fierce and elaborate address of 
the plaintiff, into which he has thrown whatever talent 
and energy he possesses, attempting to prove the charge 
against me of having insulted him in the discharge of 
his duty as a magistrate. You have heard him cite a 
variety of precedents and authorities to prove, what I 
am willing in a moment to admit, that to libel a magistrate, 
as such, in the execution of his duty, is not only cognizable, 
but punishable, by law. It may appear strange to you 
gentlemen, that an individual, sustaining the character of a 
minister of religion, should appear in his own proper person 



240 ROMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

to plead to an action like the present. But when I consider 
the frivolous nature of the charge, a charge, the mere sub 
mitting of which to a British jury is an insult to their 
judgment and integrity ; when I consider the character of 
the plaintiff, an unceasing and notorious libeller-, when I 
consider his conduct in courts of justice, as calculated to 
lessen and undermine that respect which ought ever to be 
cherished in the public mind towards our judicial institu 
tions ; when I consider the supreme contempt with which he 
appears to treat the Jamaica bar, a bar composed of gentle 
men whose attainments would render in the plaintiff the 
bare idea of comparison unpardonable arrogance and pre 
sumption; and, above all, when I consider the plaintiff s 
motive in sending out this action, a desire to come in per 
sonal collision with me, for this he has avowed : yes, gen 
tlemen, he has declared that, were I to retain counsel, he 
would withdraw the action, but, were I to. plead in propria, 
persona, he would follow it up, I say that, under all these 
circumstances, I should feel it degrading to have employed 
counsel to plead to such an action, instituted by such a man, 
and tried by a jury of my countrymen bound by the solemn 
obligation of an oath. I am perfectly aware, gentlemen, 
that, were it not for the public situation which I hold in the 
Wesleyan Society, you would never have been called on to 
try this action. The plaintiff, fully conscious of the pre 
judice which unfortunately exists in this island against some 
bodies of dissenters, and judging, no doubt, from his own 
views and principles, that he might possibly find a jury who, 
under the influence of this prejudice, would be disposed to 
grant him a verdict, makes the trial, and institutes the pro 
cess ; and I fearlessly aver, gentlemen, that, were I a mere 
private citizen, such a course would never have been adopted. 
But does the existence of this unhappy feeling make me 
afraid to place my cause in your hands this day ? Can I 
fear for a moment that this ground of success assumed by 
the plaintiff shall influence your decision? Can I believe 
that private or personal aversion will, in the minds oi 
Britons, rise paramount to the claims of truth and justice ? 



THE BAFFLED EXTOBTIONEK. 211 

No, gentlemen ; and I care not who the individuals are that 
occupy that seat, I place, with unshaken confidence, my 
claims to a verdict in the hands of men who will render that 
justice to another which they would demand for themselves. 
It is true, gentlemen, that, in some of the minor points of 
religious faith, you and I may happen to differ ; but God 
forbid that a difference in religious opinions should cause us 
to trample beneath our feet those public and sacred rights in 
which we all glory. God forbid that a difference in religion 
should lead us to disregard the high requisitions of those 
precepts and doctrines which we equally recognise, and 
which inculcate the great duty of Christian charity, without 
which our world would become a field of blood. Whatever 
may be our peculiar views in religion, I regard you, gentle 
men, as believers in a Divine revelation, and as respecting its 
tremendous sanctions. I view you under the awful obliga 
tion of an oath, and feeling the weight of that obligation. 
I do not, then, in the common language of courts, call upon 
you to exclude prejudice from your minds. No ; let pre 
judice, if you feel it, operate to its full extent. Your judg 
ment, your justice, your integrity, your veneration for the 
law of God, your respect for your solemn oath, but, above 
all, your anticipations of that last great day when you and 
I shall stand before a higher tribunal, when the Judge of all 
the earth shall do right, and from whose decision no possible 
appeal can lie ; I say, gentlemen, all these considerations 
shall conquer, must conquer, every feeling in your bosoms 
but that which prompts to the exercise of justice between 
man and man. 

" It has been insinuated that I stand connected with the 
African Institution, and correspond with the Colonial Office 
as the enemy of this colony. But, gentlemen, I solemnly 
declare that I do not know a single individual of that Insti 
tution, and that I have never, directly or indirectly, commu 
nicated with the Colonial Office. During the period of my 
residence in this island, I have never transmitted to the 
mother- Country any information injurious to the country or 
its magistracy. No, gentlemen, I never had cause to do so j 



242 EOMANCE OF THE MISSION FIELD. 

and the motive for such an implication must be obvious. I 
have long been represented by the plaintiff as endeavouring to 
counteract the designs of the legislative body of Jamaica, 
and endangering the safety of the island. But I defy the 
plaintiff to afford the slightest proof of these charges. And, 
gentlemen, so generally have these false insinuations been 
circulated, that, before my case was submitted to the court, 
I was told that, as a Wesleyan missionary, I could have no 
chance of acquittal in a Jamaica court, and by a Jamaica 
jury. But, gentlemen, do I believe this? Solemnly I do 
not. I have seen that in this court two days since which 
would have induced me to place my life in the hands of their 
honours on the bench, and the jury that occupied your 
place; and I feel the most undoubted assurance that justice 
will, this day, be equally and impartially administered. 

" Much stress has been laid by Mr. Beaumont on the 
circumstance of my not calling witnesses to rebut the 
testimony adduced on his part. But, gentlemen, why call 
witnesses ? What did his witnesses prove ? Why, they 
attempted to fix the charge of sedition on the meeting. But 
do I now stand before you on a charge of sedition ? Has a 
criminal information been filed against me ? Why, then, 
should I adduce testimony to disprove that of which I am 
not formally and legally accused ? The plaintiff has sophisti- 
cally endeavoured to mix up in his address to you sedition 
and libel. Why, gentlemen ? That he might raise a volume 
of dust for the purpose of escaping in the cloud he had 
produced. But this will not, cannot deceive so intelligent a 
jury as that I am now addressing. He has also asserted that 
an improper junction was formed between the Baptists and 
Wesleyans for political purposes, and that the meeting was 
held merely to forward those purposes. Gentlemen, such 
meetings are held all over Great Britain and Ireland. I have 
been invited to the platform with and by the clergy of the 
Church of England. Was that for the purposes of political 
union ? You are fully aware it was not ; and yet it was 
quite as much so as the junction alluded to. The Wesleyans 
and Baptists are quite distinct ; our doctrines, our discipline, 



THB BAFFLED EXTOBTIONEB. 243 

our economy are different. Our respective societies some 
times imagine we stand too much opposed to each other. 
But there is a common ground we all occupy ; and for the 
general dissemination of religion we combine. Such was the 
object of the meeting. It was held, not for political 
purposes, but to raise funds in order to send Christian mis 
sionaries to distant parts of the world. But, gentlemen, 
though it was not necessary for me to bring forward witnesses 
to disprove that with which I was not charged, I must 
direct your attention to the nature of the meeting to show 
that, it not being illegal, the plaintiff had no right of 
interference. Though not exactly an act of worship, it was 
yet a religious service, commenced and concluded with 
singing and prayer, publicly announced, open to all, and in 
which any man was welcome to express his sentiments, 
even in opposition to the object of the meeting, so long as 
he conducted the discussion temperately and properly. The 
authorities already cited to you irrefragably prove to you 
that there was not a single feature of the meeting which 
made it illegal. Mr. Gutzmer swears that he could not say 
that any of the speakers called the magistrates of St. Ann s 
fools and devils ; the other witnesses will not swear to it. 
Mr. Bruce deposes that, until the plaintiff rose to speak, 
there was not the least appearance of disorder. The boy, 
Chamberlaine, swears there was a rush ; his cross-examina 
tion prove